For 2025 I Booked a 55k J flight from FRA-ANC, and booked my outbound flight on QR in J for 235k miles, with 3 day stopover in DOH. sure, these are a lot of miles, but miles are easy to come by these days.

Last trip I flew two of my cousins and myself in EI J from the east coast to DUB and back for 90k miles each round trip. Seemingly unlimited availability.

The year before that I had more success with DE J and BA in F.

The year before that I redeemed round trip Y on FI for one of my cousins and myself. Y was totally fine for that short of flight.

My point is, there is always a way to use AS miles. They are easy come easy go. All I know is I redeem my miles way more often for international J and F than any of my SkyMiles friends.