Yep. Upgrade awards only on UL-metal flights.
If you plan on flying them again, miles can be used for inflight duty-free purchases: you'd get a USD 340 voucher towards that out of your miles.
Miles can be transferred between accounts - deducting you're Australia-based, consolidating the balance into one account you'd have enough to redeem for one 40k Y award within your zone: Australia, New Zealand, New Guinea, Easter Island, Fiji, French Polynesia, New Caledonia, Tonga, Vanuatu, American Samoa, Samoa. The fees for transferring miles are comparatively modest ($50 for up to 40k miles). If both of you want to go on an award trip or you'd need to top off to reach 40k, you can purchase additional miles. This, at USD 250 per 10,000 miles, isn't particularly attractive, though.