You can get way more than $12000 out of a million miles. I don't fly *A, but a quick glance at UA's award chart shows ~200k miles for a one way "anytime" US-Australia flight in first class. That is currently about $10,000 according to Google Flights. Done 5 times, there's $50,000. (I'm sure you can redeem on one of their better partner airlines, like ANA, if you are willing to be flexible on dates and times.)
Of course, this is unhelpful if you don't want to go somewhere far away and expensive in a premium cabin. I've always found the value in frequent flyer miles to be in redeeming tickets that I could never afford with money. Using frequent flyer miles to fly from Chicago to Minneapolis is not getting you much value.
Of course, this is unhelpful if you don't want to go somewhere far away and expensive in a premium cabin. I've always found the value in frequent flyer miles to be in redeeming tickets that I could never afford with money. Using frequent flyer miles to fly from Chicago to Minneapolis is not getting you much value.