Originally Posted by
LHR/MEL/Europe FF
You'll see airlines regularly offer business class from Asia in the AUD2000 range - for good carriers such as Qatar, Finnair and Oman Air.
You couple those with a cheap economy fare to Asia and then enjoy full flat beds for the rest of the trip.
As you'll be booking separate tickets you'll need to allow plenty of connecting time though (lile at least 6-8 hours to be safe).
There are some downsides to that. If you book separate tickets (AU-Asia and Asia-EU) then you risk missing your connecting flight, which forfeits your onward ticket. From a practical perspective, it also makes your trip longer (more time spent in airports, more check-ins, more...
travelling). I've done a longer trip to Europe (MEL-CAN-CDG-OTP) so I can fly J and though the flying experience was definitely better than Y, I got there just as tired and frustrated due to the layovers.
I do agree with the consensus that QF points are pretty useless for flight UGs AU to Europe. AU has plenty of travelers with the purchasing power to pay for J and airlines are aware of this. You can save up QF points to book J awards, use alternative earning programms (e.g. AmEx points), fork up the cash or learn to enjoy Y. (It is possible, I promise.)