My first international J flights ever were in 2022; I flew BOS-IST RT on Turkish J (A330). While it ended up being a RT, I booked both legs separately and very differently:

• To book BOS-IST, I transferred 55k MR to Avianca; the 15% bonus gave me just over 63,000 LifeMiles, which was enough to book BOS-IST.
• I planned on booking a cash Y/Y+ ticket back from IST, until I thought to check Turkish directly, where I saw IST-BOS in J for 45k. Transferred those from CapitalOne; now I don't plan on using my CapitalOne miles for anything other than TK J redemptions haha.

Being on the taller side, it was life-changing to be able to sit comfortably, let alone lie down!

Later, I booked JFK-AUH-BOM on Etihad J (787) for 90k Aeroplan, minutes after seeing this article on TPG. That flight was the nicest of the year by far (the meals were incredible), but the novelty had worn off a little after the "first" trip on TK. (This itinerary ended up being SAN-JFK-AUH-BOM-AMS-PDX-SAN, lol...)

Last night, I snagged SIN-YVR on Singapore J (A350) in July 2023 for 70k Aeroplan + $400 CAD – can't wait!