Is there any effect on what name is submitted when booking a ticket and what frequent flyer account is used for booking the flight?
My Hypothetical Situation: My partner and I want to go to Europe in 2021. I am a Bronze FF but I have a close friend who is a Gold FF. I have enough points to upgrade our seats to business however I may not receive the upgrade due to my FF status. So can I transfer points to my friends FF account, book the tickets in my name and then use their FF account and status with my transferred points to request a upgrade with a higher chance of acceptance?
The short answer is no, you cannot do that. The ticket and the FF account need to be in the same name. You cannot use someone else’s FF account to get yourself an upgrade. There is some small possibility if the other person is a relative (who could then book the ticket on your behalf), but not if they are merely a friend.
Some people may suggest that you pretend to be a relative. However, you would be committing fraud and, if found out, both you and your friend would risk losing all your points and status and having your FF accounts shut down.
You are not travelling until 2021. The better option for you would be for you and your partner to each sign up to a Qantas-points-earning credit card or two with large sign-up bonuses. You might then have enough points to each book a business class redemption outright.
Agree with @sixtyeight. In addition, upgrading for flights to Europe basically limits you to either the QF 1 service to London via singaproe or QF 9 via perth. Both of these routes frequently get completely filled in Business and is one of the most premium heavy routes in Australia (think of it like London to New York). So I doubt that even with Gold status, you would be able to get upgraded anyways.
As @sixtyeight said, building up your points balances to redeem outright is always a better option. You get a guaranteed seat in Business instead of playing the upgrade lottery in addition to opening up much more choices for your flights. You aren’t stuck on Qantas because you want to upgrade using points. Instead, you could fly Cathay Pacific, Air France, KLM, British Airways, Qatar Airways, Emirates just to name a few in addition to Qantas.
The amount of points you need for upgrades vs outright reward flights is not that different so it won’t take long for you guys. A credit card sign up here and a few flights there will get you there in no time.