Should I use my Velocity points for Sydney to United Kingdom on Etihad or Singapore Airlines first class?

Hello - looking for some input. I have around 250k velocity points and looking to book a one way first or business class (or combined) trip mid 2020 from Sydney to London (or elsewhere in Europe) or even New York.

I am most interested in making sure I will be experiencing a collection of good first class / business class product and happy to do stopovers as needed and book seperate awards within my points limit.

Options I have selected so far and weighing up between are:

  1. Sydney to New York via Abu Dhabi - First Class - Etihad - 203,000 points
    -Good points are that it seems to be on the A380 apartment all the way which I am keen to try
    -However, my understanding is velocity will not let me spend a night in Abu Dhabi as otherwise it would cost two seperate Fclass awards and therefore too much - is this confirmed the case?
    -Also may would be a case of two flights back to back (14hrs + each) with no stopover - it would be great to hear from someone who has flown this route before

I can then use my Qantas points to fly back business to London, or even Emirates business to Milan

  1. Sydney to Shanghai (via Singapore) First Class - Singapore Airlines - 134,000 points
    -Would appear to be A380 both ways on certain routes
    -Would allow stopover in Shanghai and also maybe Singapore

Followed by Shanghai to London - Business Class - Virgin Atlantic - 78,000 points

Total of 212,000 points

Does anyone have any advice on which of the above routes would be best in terms of product, lounges and value for points?

In addition, if anyone else has any other creative routes combining solid products I would love to hear suggestions as not particularly sold on any one route.

Cheers

Etihad would be easiest to redeem your points for due to their more generous availability but their surcharges are quite high.
I would completely rule out using Velocity points on Singapore First Class since they only release premium space to their own members. If you want to redeem for Singapore FC, you should transfer the Velocity points to Singapore Krisflyer.
Just my two cents.

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