A friend has coe to me to help get the best deal for arranging travel to Hong Kong in October. Their plans have some flexibility, but must be in October. They want to fly business class, since 18 hours on an airplane in coach will drive them crazy. I did a regular search and came up with RDU-ORD-HKG on United/American for $4500 each in First/Business class.

Do our experienced Asian travelers have any suggestions of how to get a better deal?

You should check Cathay Pacific's US Web site at http://www.cathay-usa.com/ They often registered members (it's free) All Asia Passes that premit travel for 30 days throughout Asia. They are around $999 but you will get emails when they are on sale (as low as $499!) and they offer a suppliment to upgrage the pass to Business Class, making it a great deal. You may want to wait closer to October when some deals may pop up. Good luck!

for about this price, you get a StarAlliance business class ticket AROUND-THE-WORLD (max 25'000 flight miles).

Try an Asian (Chinese) consolidator for China Southern, which as direct flights to Guangzhou, China with connecting flights to Hong Kong. You can probably find a bargain business class fare for below $3,000. They fly brand new Boeing 777 on this route and I believe you can get Delta miles now (or Soon) as a code-share arrangment has just been signed.

mritichie:

Please see my posting under "Passages: 2x Bonus from SFO-HKG on CP."

Quick summary: Buy from American Express Travel Services (D fare) from SFO-HKG, get free companion tix and 25K bonus AA miles. Price is about $4700. Unsure if still available in Oct.

Another alternative is for your friend to get an American Express PLatinum card and use the buy one F/B tix get one free (unrelated to the above bonus).

another way to do this would be to use a Round the World fare from AirCanada/Korean. Fare is about $3400 CDN/$2400 USD. Only catch is that you have to leave and return from Canada. Way to do this fm RDU would be to take Canadian RDU/Toronto/RDU (at whatever fare you could get), then Toronto/Vancouver/Hong Kong on AC, HKG-SEL-Europe on Korean, then Europe (any Air Canada city (not codeshared cities) back to Toronto. I did something like this 3 years ago--Air Canada is great, Korean is OK, and you can't beat the price. When I did it I flew to Toronto in the evening, stayed at the Gateway Sheraton (attached to Pearson airport), then left the next AM about 9 am, which arrives into HKG about 6 pm the following day after the date line).

Another way to do it -- a bit odd, but I don't know any reason why it shouldn't work. (I found this strategy as I was resarching my own upcoming trip to Asia, and may use it, so let me know if you encounter any problems.)

Business class fares to Taipei are much less than to other destinations in Asia. For example, from DC they run about $2500 r/t. A separate business class ticket from Taipei to Hong Kong is less than $200 each way, as I recall. So -- buy and ticket these two legs separately, make sure to leave plenty of time to make the connection in Taipei, and you'll save a bundle.

The Cathay Pacific pass is ok ($999 for the pass, plus $1000 each way to upgrade only on the transpacific flights), but only if you live in a gateway city for them. Otherwise, you have to buy a separate ticket to the gateway.

Charlie

I am really not sure how Korean Air business class travel is, however my mum had a good experience in economy class.

She flew last November from H.K. to San Francisco on Korean Air for US$500. Now that is a deal!!