You have zero chance of an upgrade. However what you may be able to do is negotiable a better routing, however the onus will be on you to have your options prior to contacting them.
No it isn't the first death this year, however the case had been flown in from PNG for treatment Former PNG governor dies in Queensland hospital after COVID-19 complications
D Class = Business for Domestic, so the 80SC would appear correct. You need C/J for Flexible business.
https://www.qantas.com/au/en/frequent-flyer/earn-points/airline-earning-tables/earn-category-tables.html#qantas
It has been documented on here that points can take 100+ days to post. One of the reasons behind this is some people have been gaming the system (i.e purchase the goods, get the points quickly and then action a refund within the allowable time frames effectively getting the points for free...
Not to steal JohnM’s thunder, I had a similar experience at through the club on one of their Cessna’s earlier this year. Didn’t grab as many photos as JohnM but was a cracking ride