Can you afford to pay for the flights, but use the QFF for other things, like to pay for QF hotels stay website bookings?
A lot of people on here say P+P is not worth using, but with P+P, you know you have the seat, unless something hits the fan, but still, P+P is better than trying for a points upgrade, as you are NB.
As you know and mentioned, QFF flyers with higher status will have taken a lot of seats, either on QF flights or the small number of seats that QF partners release to QFF flyers.
Have a look at using points for hotels anyway.
