I agree the wine can be good value but personally only buy near the end of the FF year to get my Green Tier tick and if I need to get those last few points, or it is a drop that I plan to drink.
I would make the argument that the best time to buy these points would be at the beginning of the program year. In that way you would enjoy all of the benefits of points club for most of the current program year and the following program year. For me the big deal with points club would be the accrual of status credits on Qantas classic awards, which when combined with the Platinum perk of being able to release classic award seats is quite appealing indeed. It's also not bad to receive such status credits on Qantas operated BA Avios issued tickets, either given the many sweet spots they have.
Flight redemptions are excellent value provided they are available when you want/need.
This shouldn't be much of a problem given I'm a Platinum member and so can request seats to open up (and have some flexibility on the departure and return dates).
Although Y redemptions (coach is only a term used in North America) only occasionally better value than sale fares a few niche routes like Lord Howe or Broome excluded, generally J is the award sweet spot.
Given the itinerary I've got planned, any savings would be welcomed. To give you an example, I see the cheapest logical fare (that is a fare that doesn't involve me crossing through LAX and MIA) from SYD to SCL is $1,577 on LA (transiting in AKL) booked as a one-way. Two of those tickets would cost me $3,144. The cheapest nonstop from YVR to SYD is $1,754 on QF when I'm looking to fly. So a total of $4898. Now, yes you can point out that booking a return is cheaper (I did the homework there and that works out to $2800 AUD return, but even then I'm still ahead. Is the cost savings and value per point booking economy as great as business class, I think everyone here could unequivocally agree no but monetarily but also in terms of experience. Perhaps if I was travelling alone and had a simpler itinerary, I would consider booking such a ticket in a heartbeat. But this itinerary just ain't it.
I should also point out that classic award tickets have a few benefits including changes and refunds for very little cost (i.e. 5K-6K points per pax) plus instant upgrade eligibility. The latter could prove to be important as I generate QF points by other means. For instance, I could book a QF economy award, then once I have enough points call up QF and get it switched to a Premium Economy or Business award.
O/T but the entry level
American Express is available to PR and long term visa holders. And of course many overseas issued cards can convert to QF points as well.
The issue is I'm on a student visa so I cannot apply for a credit card here. To say it was frustrating when I got here and called the AmEx global transfer line to be told this fact is the understatement of the decade for me.