Joyce, it's encouraging to hear that you were successful. It appears that flexibility on departure dates (as you and several others here have pointed out) play a big part in getting those reward seats. We do have some play there, and could fly out of other NYC airports as well, but EWR is preferable.

Kosrae, one of the agents I spoke with said that I, too, could book the EZPass tickets at any time, but that they require 70,000 reward points EACH way. I'm not willing to use 140,000 points per person with 5 people going.

bocastephen, those are all excellent suggestions! I would rather have a nonstop flight if at all possible, but the LAX stopover is definitely something to consider, given the points you made.