It’s way too early to make any firm plans for December. Airlines are unlikely to lead with their best price, unless maybe there’s a large event in the destination city on your travel dates. That said, because award reservations are refundable, I don’t see any problems with locking in partner awards at 44K, provided you’re not buying or transferring any miles to get there.

There’s a significant chance that you’ll be able to find partner business class awards within a few days to weeks of your travel date, at about 88K per person. Check every now and then prior to travel.

Keep in mind, one way international airfares are extremely expensive. If you end up needing to purchase a cash ticket in one direction, you’ll almost certainly want to do so in both directions (one exception is that cash fares to Singapore aren’t particularly bad, so an award ticket from HKG coupled with a cash ticket to SIN may make sense). Buf, if you’re going to pay cash, don’t expect the best prices until sometime between ~3 months and ~3 weeks prior to departure. If you’re buying a round-trip cash ticket, you’ll have to go west, not east.

If you do end up with award tickets, buy them as one-ways, so you can change either leg without affecting the other.