I just booked 2 J award seats for next June out of IAH and returning to JFK (I wouldn't count on JFK as I must have looked at the exact moment they popped up) but I did see a lot of availability out of IAH and returning to ORD. I know that doesn't help you much but just providing a data point. I checked for several days before I transferred and made sure that there was fairly consistent availability for my outbound and return across a few dates and it worked out. We live near ATL so we were always going to need positioning and I never really looked at west coast as positioning to/from there is inconvenient for us.
How much did you pay in fuel surcharges? Also, what was your strategy for booking the return flight given available wouldn't yet have been released for your return dates?
Thanks in advance for your help.