I only ever fly on QF using staff travel these days if it's a last minute thing.
Virgin is great if you look out for the daily domestic happy hour specials.
You can usually get a confirmed seat for a similar price or even slightly less than the QF staff travel price.
Internationally the only reason to buy a QF staff ticket is if you want an upgradeable ticket.
Other than that, most other carriers offer ZED fares now (through staff stravel), which in a lot of cases are cheaper than the QEA fare and the tickets incur no fuel surcharge.
On the FBT, I used to get an FBT amount on my group cert, but it was zero this year as well.