The are only a couple of things about staff travel that irk me. The first is that our high priority trips should be confirmed at least once a year. The only time this may bump some other customers would be in school holidays, but the rest of the year probably wouldn't make too much difference. The second is the fuel surcharge on staff tickets, though that has slowly been reduced lately.
I don't mind not being able to book too far in advance, as after all we are filling empty seats. I normally have checked out what I want to do and what zed fares I should get as back ups and do the zed fare and any long service trips over the phone 10 days before I need to travel. Also with International travel 2 weeks out with give you a pretty accurate idea of what the flight will be like.
It also amazes me how many staff do not travel with back up tickets. If you cant afford at least one back up ticket, then you probably can not afford to go on holiday. I was in BKK when one of the coups happend (2006?), the coup happened overnight and I was due to come home that afternoon. I was there on a 6 day break, and before I went the QF flight had almost 100 seats coming home and the BA also had seats. Well every man and his dog was trying to get home and as a consequnce no staff were going to get on QF or BA. Talking to other staff in the que, they were also on days off and needed to get home to start work. They were cutting it fine to be back at work, I had one day up my sleeve. Talking to them I found out that they did not have any back ups, just QF/BA ticket. I had a back up and got out on TG which had 50 seats available. I always get backups when I go overseas even if I'm pretty sure I don't need them.
Regarding upgrades overall they are done as they should be. I work in an area where I have access to that info and it all seems to work ok. If you feel you have been dudded and can get the info, staff travel do follow that up and act on it. Seniority and catergories seem to work out ok. I'm pretty much in the middle and have rarely missed out on an upgrade.
There are plenty resources on the net for you to use to research which flights and back up tickets you need, have a look on the staff travel site for the links. Since everything is now online I've rarely had to wait too long on the phone to talk to them. Don't call on a monday morning or friday arvo and it isn't too bad.
I'm not in Staff Travel, but if you know the system, you can make it work for you and get the most out of it.