I'd argue the opposite. The real point hackers earning millions are churning like mad and doing sign up bonuses everywhere. those should be well below 1c per point cost.
It's all but impossible to earn 1mil points per year per person through churning Australian cards. The figure is probably closer to half that. Think about it. Which 100K ones can be done on a yearly basis? ANZ, Westpac, StGeorge/BOM, Citi. That's 4. You can then do Amex, NAB every second year. Then there's some that are closer to 50K (eg Qantas Premier, Bankwest).
The only ones earning millions (especially plural) of points per year are business spenders or heavy manufactured spenders, both of which generally come with points acquisition costs.
If someone is willing to churn cards non-stop for 2-3 years, they'll be able to get a single return trip to Europe. You have to wonder how many people want to put that amount of effort in for that return.
I agree with you though that there are other lower cost options (eg Asia), but availability on those routes has never been that dire. It's the long haul routes where it is impossible.
In short, this announcement reinforces the attraction of Velocity over Qantas for premium long-haul award travel.
For those that are neutral on the new program, here are the negatives of CR+ from my perspective:
- Less chance of Platinum release of award seats as these come from the same fare classes (eg I for business)
- Normalises even higher charges on reward seats (CR+ have higher fees than classic awards)
- No additional SC earn over classic awards despite paying way more points for the seats
- Removes the pressure on Qantas to release classic award seats on premium long-haul routes (ie now Qantas can simply say there are classic points options to LHR)
- Normalises higher points costs for flights, paving the way for further withdrawal of classic award availability