Yep, that's what happened. I was chatting about the booking on Whirlpool, and someone in the industry could see the plane loads, and commented that the flight back to AU had Business Class heavily booked from New York (I got on at LAX) so guessed it was a basketball team or something! Sure enough, I only got PE on that home flight, which was OK but a bit disappointing.
But all that happened when I was still a Qantas Club member though a corporate scheme (for a job I'd left).
Still turning over joining, it's just over $300 once you buy Gold membership on this forum. So you get showers, grog and internet... although if your connections are short, you don't get to use any of it. And I think most international terminals in AU have free showers anyway (Sydney and Melbourne do). But if I manage to find flights that aren't heavily booked or have lots of high status FF people asking for upgrades, then Club membership might elevate me in the upgrade queue.
Which is another reason routes through Brisbane are attractive, Jumbos + fewer high status travellers (I hope). BTW, I'm going CBR - SLC, probably via BNE and LAX (or SFO although that doesn't seem so common nowadays).
