Funny you should mention the Australia thing. When Mrs J and I went on our honeymoon with BA they lost our luggage for 4 days. How to ruin a honeymoon by British Airways.
On our return I did the customary jumping up and down about how they had stuffed it up and what were they going to do about it. 2 return tickets to anywhere was the response. This is great I thought. I hadn't been back to Brisbane for a while, so rang them up and said "Brisbane it is". ......... to be told "Sorry, Australia isn't available". That's where the fun really began.
There was nothing on any of the documentation stating restrictions on destinations. They had to give into that. I told them I would like to travel in September........ to be told "Sorry, no availability". I had checked on the BA website before I called, and there certainly was availability and proceeded to let them know once again there was nothing on the documentation stating restrictions on the basis of what I assumed was them using frequent flyer seats or other freebies. The letter simply stated "2 return airfares anywhere in the BA network" and that was that.
If what you get is the same, pressure the bastards. They can't make the rules up as they go along.