THanks folks. I bought some alaska miles and was able to get the trip from SEA to MAA for 70k + $600 (plus another 200 I had to spend to transfer points) in business. This is in BA

Now, what remains is the return segment. Thinking of doing an amex to avios to qmiles to book the way back - would that be the best option? Since amex doesn't directly transfer to Alaska (other wise there's a 130K singapore business that would have worked )

Thanks much for the awardhacker link!