Please excuse me if I'm in the wrong forum for this question but I'm brand new to flyertalk and most of this info. is WAY over my head.
Here's what I want to accomplish, if anyone can help advise me.
Background: I live in Seattle and basically take two different kinds of flights.

1) Each year my wife and I like to fly to either Mexico or Hawaii for R&R. Every other year we like to take a major trip to Europe -- often England but sometimes Italy or other places on the continent.

2) We currently use an Alaska Airlines VISA card for all our purchases and normally charge at least $5000/month on it. It works great when we want to fly to Hawaii or Mexico but it very difficult to use for Europe especially for a summer flight since we have to go through their partner desk. I've been calling every day for two months (starting at 330 days before we want to leave - or whatever the earliest date was) and still no luck.

QUESTION: Are more miles available for their own flights compared to partner flights. In other words, if we wanted to cash in on a flight to Europe would we have better luck finding a flight directly through say Delta instead of using Alaska's partner desk to find a Delta flight? Or do they all go through the same pool?

FINAL QUESTION: If it's true that we would have better luck redeeming miles directly from the airline used, then which airline would be the best to use to fly from Seattle to Europe? If I know that, I can apply for their credit card and start saving miles.

Thanks for your help. I've got a lot to learn!!

Bob