Thanks for the reply, but not sure about the math. Here's the details I found at AA website where it says earn UP TO 100,000 bonus miles:
http://www.aa.com/apps/netSAAver/Vie...omotionContent
Unfortunately, my friend won't be anywhere near business or first class so the AA promo doesn't apply. I checked and with CX double miles promo, these friends doing YVR-HKG-BNE would earn approx 42K AsiaMiles, less than half of the 110K required for a free trip same routing in future. They might be better off to collect on AA and be around 20K, which is close to free ticket Canada-USA.