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?