1. Though award availability is constantly changing and may change in this case, I would book it now if you've been looking for the awards for weeks and nothing shows up (assuming you'd be willing to drive to SAN). Have you tried looking for SNA-HKG, ONT-HKG, or BUR-HKG?

2. Yes, she can safely dump the final LAX-SAN segment. However, you have to tell the agents in HKG to short check your bags to LAX. Otherwise, they will be checked all the way to SAN.

3. Not sure... someone else can probably chime in.

4. If she checks bags at SAN, AA will tag them all the way to HKG unless they agree to short check them to LAX. The carriers can tag bags among other carriers.