Actually there is a convention going on at the time. Its the NJ Teachers Convention in Atlantic City. All of the public school kids in NJ are off the 8th, 9th, 10th, and the 11th. So flights out of EWR, LGA, JFK, ACY, and PHL are all probably pretty full. I know when I was in school, I had to make reservations 4-5 months in advance to get a decent price to FL for teachers convention.