If you acheived Qantas Platinum for 15 years straight you should be either Lifetime Gold, or at least close to it. Lifetime status seems a reasonable reward for all those years - sure, it's not platinum, but Gold is still pretty good.
It suggests to me that there is no longer any Flybuys account linked to your Velocity account. As such, no transfers of points, and the Status Credits you earn on Coles/Liquorland spend no longer applies.
Given my recent experiences on MH, I don't think they go through much tea or coffee in flight at all. Once the seatbelt sign comes on, it seems to just stay on.