WE are going to Perth,etc. next September on AA/Qantas. 75,000 miles in coach. ORD/LAX, then either MEL/SYD/BNE to PER. We are going thru SYD but no stopover (allowed). Booked hotel nites in PER using Priority Club points for Holiday Inn. Hotel which is normally $320 was 25K points. There is also a Hyatt there which would be pointworthy were it not for the better usage of the Priority Points which you can get for .06 each. Chase has a no-fee first year card which gives you 60K points, 80K if you get a targeted invite, as well as a 10% rebate on point redemptions, so the 25K point room would only be 22.5K.

You can go one stop to PER using Cathay rhru Hong Kong but that costs more miles than the 2 stop AA. The Cathay flight prices out as 2 segments so if you want to stopover in Hong Kong, that's fine. AA/Qantas do not permit stopovers (except in the US gateway).