One thing that you are not going to read in any of these sort or articles, but I realised a while ago is that there is a great deal of luck in actually being able to get redemptions which are a) remotely close to anything you want and b) involve less than a million points.
Having spent an extraordinary amount of time and a significant amount of money on multiple frequent flyer programs over the last 15 years, I've managed to book a grand total of one overseas flight on points and get one international upgrade (to/from NZ). Yes, I have managed to get some domestic flights on points and I have used some points for hotels in the US pre-COVID, but I would seriously struggle to convince myself that the time and cost was worth it.
The last few times I looked into what redemptions were available, I gave up. Trying to find redemptions is an absolutely excruciating experience, it is something I would have wasted several weeks of my life on for zero result. What is incredibly obvious that Australia has just been at an huge disadvantage in terms of redemption flight availability for a long time, and it doesn't look like that is going to change any time soon, because there is a serious lack of competition.
No doubt the airlines and credit card companies will continue to come up with ingenious new schemes to devalue existing points and further frustrate attempts to redeem them.
. I think you'll find that here on AFF, the first point you made is often made, loud and clear!
