Its why I don't fly Qantas, I think their Frequent Flyer program sucks at least for my travel needs.

When I knew I was going to be doing a lot of flights to Europe and sometimes the US in business/first a few years ago I researched with frequent flyer program would be the best for me. I took into account each airline's service, but Etihad had the best value upgrades. Coming from an ex-United frequent flyer, I kind of expect upgrades to be reasonably priced. I really don't mind paying for a B booking class ticket to upgrade as long as it doesn't dry my points out. I think Etihad should have made the booking classes more restrictive and reduces the upgrade cost. I think in the end it works better as the airline gets more revenue and frequent flyers feel like they are getting value with their miles. Spending 120,000 on a round trip just to Abu Dhabi (+ the extra to Europe which would be an additional 80,000-90,000) so total 210,000 miles seems more like an award ticket than an upgrade. If Etihad wants people to buy premium cabins then it is working, as I would rather spend 10,000 dollars on a business class ticket to Europe or less than spend that amount of miles on upgrading.