A few points about redemptions which may be helpful:
No stopovers allowed, by transit stops (<24 hrs) are fine.
Yup domestic to international connections are the best way to get to the lounge early!
You have to be careful with the transit stops. You actually only get 4 hours to change flights on domestic connections, unless of course the next scheduled flight is after this, in which case you must take that flight. If the next available flight (either domestic or international connection) is greater than 24 hours after your scheduled arrival then it is considered a stopover.
An exception to the no stopover rule:
If you are flying to/from North America then you can have a stopover at the gateway city (eg. flying PER-SYD-LAX-JFK, you could have a stopover at LAX.)
Routing:
On an
all-partner award (which is the award that most of us here at AFF would be using), you must use the most direct routing. This is determined by either:
1. A published fare's explicitly approved routing (This is where EF or KVS comes to the rescue); or
2. MPM +25%. (MPM is 'maximum permitted mileage' which often appears in the routing part of a fare. The +25% is quite generous of AA, it's certainly helped me!)
Wholly within one region (Aus - NZ):
This is only possible on QF, so no LAN AKL-SYD flights are possible for redemption under the wholly within one region. LAN can be used but it then becomes a South Pacific to South Pacific award.