Book one waynat a time, and you can mix partners, and put a "nested" paid flight in between.
places we have gone or will go with our Alaska miles, all in Business Class or First: Venice, Switzerland ( 2 times) Sydney Australia, and Tokyo Japan. With 150K miles you would be flying in Economy, but could still go lots of places.
The trick to award redemptions is to either plan and book way ahead, when the award seats are released ( what we do), or wait and watch for last-minute availability if you are flexible. ( Note that this second way is risky with one-way bookings so you should book roundtrip).
we have also used them numerous time to fly to Alaska and the East Coast.