An interesting strategy as the number 1 loyalty factor in FF programs is the ability to upgrade; people want to use upgrade credits earned flying the higher fares on business to make their personal travel more comfortable. And other plans have been sweetening the upgrades in order to lock in that loyalty (AA changed their plan this year -- to give free upgrades from any fare to their Emeralds on North American flights -- the opposite to QFs strategy). I suppose QF is facing up to the reality that it doesn't have enough premium capacity. Presumably the A380 arrival into service will change that!
Now I know why my WP renewal card came 4 months early -- they wanted them out before this announcement (I have lots of flights booked with QF, but they are all going to be credited to AAdvantage now and not QF, though I suppose existing UCs just got much more valuable, particularly those with long expiration dates, so maybe stocking up on UCs now is a good long term strategy ... trusting that QF will make inventory available to use them prior to expiration).