Slowly getting there in terms of understanding this process. I was able to talk to a customer service rep at BA (after a 45 minute wait) to check some flights that I have been looking at and confirm availability.
The good news is that I was able to find flights that had enough availability for my family of 4. The bad news is that we also see if our friends would be able to book as well so that we can go together.
According to BA (and a couple other sources) it seems that there are only 7 seats available to book at the sAAver (25k) rate for any flight. I looked at other airlines that might be options (Delta, via KoreanAir), but the only non-stop flights on the same day seem to be that same Alaska Air flight (based on time and AS flight number being the same).
If KoreanAir partner and BA partners both use Alaska Air, does that mean if I book 4 seats via BA, then only 3 will be left to book via KoreanAir? Do they both pull from the same pool of sAAver class tickets?
If so, does that mean that our family and our friends family (they have 5 people, but the youngest is 2 yo) wouldn't all be able to book tickets at the 25k rate?
@Yoshi212 mentioned booking the other ticket via the chase UR portal, so that is one option.
I guess another option would be for them to book Hawaiian Airlines via Korean for 30k round trip?