A valuable third option would be an upgrade certificate. So many airlines have such upgrades - a REAL benefit for anyone.
Find a DeLorean and a 80's Michael J Fox and zip back a decade and a half or so.
old timers will know that in the bad old days this is almost exactly what QF used to offer. They were called Upgrade Credits (or UC's) and you could earn 4 a year IIRC (or maybe it was 5?) every one came at 400 SC's. UC use were tied to the zone chart of flights in use at the time - the longer the flight the more UC's you needed to upgrade (with just 1 needed for shorter flights).
Then that was phased out, and replaced with a 5k point bonus, again at the 400 SC level, then that was enhanced to 8k points at 500SC and obviously more recently the choice for SC's was made wich on the whole is a real improvement as this thread shows - some love it, some don't need it but there's a choice.
In a way those 8k points are, kind of, a defacto UC - or partial one. I mean it's still 5k I think to upgrade a flex Y to J on a MEL-SYD, so that would pay for it, but not quite the 10k for Discount Y.
Really though whatever is offered people won't be happy will they? short of being offered instant xx status (where xx is one higher than the one you have) and unlimited ppoints and confirmed F seats on all flights you just can't please everyone.
yes they keep changing the goal posts, as most programs do... but my view is that overall it's better than zilch.
I take the points and at some point when I redeem for a J->F upgrade to LAX or a F reward, those 32k points/year bonus can make a small dent into that. Again it's better than nothing!
IMHO
