The agent probably assumed it was a 3-hr layover issue because he had just made me acknowledge that I was booking a flight with a 'short' layover and that Customs can take 3 hours. Sounded really scripted, but I've dealt with that before.

It's a moot point now, though, because the AUA (FLL) EWR flight was just now available at the WGA price. So I just saved 8000 points by canceling and rebooking. So now RT will cost 42k points for 2, thanks to Companion Pass.