Ok, I bit and booked another one of these. FLL-EWR-IST-BGW//BGW-IST-ORD-EWR (BGW = Baghdad). 120k for the round-trip, UA legs in JN and TK legs in I. Still trying to find out the reasoning for these prices. I only got it to work when there's a UA/JN segment. If I tried BGW-IST-JFK/EWR (even with I available on TK), it would give me 85k instead of 60k. Basically it's forcing me to bundle a JN domestic segment.

Been playing around with exotic locations. Not all destinations were pricing at 60k, such as TAS, ISB, KHI. However, I found 60k to RUH, MCT, DYU, DAR, ZNZ. Tempted to go to DAR or ZNZ but a 8-9h flight on a 739 is a big drawback.