UpgradeMe points ( Plat & Golds) is only 27500 points from a Freedom Fare .!!!
So for $1300 return (Freedom Fare) & 55000 pts (rtn) you can upgrade to J (subject to availability...that could be the problem)
I reckon this is pretty good value. I value VFF points at 2.5c each, so monetarily this is about $2700 cash value return in J from MEL.
My problem is I'm in PER
If in the future they decided to fly out of PER, even one day a week, I'd be a happy camper.
At the moment with a 2 hour stopover in SIN and utilising SQ the shortest trip time is listed as 11:30, only rewards seating is ASA at about 390K out and another 390K in = 780,000 VFF points (about $19,500 of value to me!). Cash price is about $2500 each way (again, on SQ via VA booking for this example .. better pricing probably available direct to SQ of course) = $5000
Going via MEL best trip time looks to be around 14:40, theres no std rewards pricing available yet, only ASA, but assuming you paid cash + points upgrade = $729 out (inc PER-MEL leg), $729 in = $1458 + 9900 VFF x2 for the domestic leg upgrade to J = 19,800 + 27500 x2 for the MEL-HKG upgrade = 55000 = total 74,800VFF, for a total monetary value including cash component circa $3328.00 or roughly 66% of the cash price via VA/SQ ... but you have to wear about 6 hours of extra trip time return.
As a status run proposition you'd earn:
Domestic Flexi legs x2 = 90SC
MEL-HKG legs x2 = 120SC
VFF points? Don't know how the fare is broken up, but there wouldn't be a large domestic component would be my guess, distance is around 4500 miles one-way MEL-HKG, so including (say) gold bonus = 9000 + 75%= 15750 + a little bit from the domestic legs
The points return would go a fair way towards covering the J upgrade cost of the domestic legs, particularly so if you're a plat.
I'm tempted to give this a try .. at least once. After all, why fly direct? hehehe.
[Edit: Mind, I'm remiss in not mentioning SQ direct rewards pricing here PER-HKG-PER as a saver J award = 65K KF points + AU$163 = 88K VFF transferred = about AU$2363 value at 2.5c/VFF]