I work in one of those Wall St. firms in NYC. People who relocate to HK in my firm are entitled to 2 J Class RT HK-US tickets per year for leisure purposes (more if you are married and have kids). Think of all the $$$ CO & UA can generate from the corporate market, in addition to those "over the counter" tickets for urgent trips! Currently, only CX provides a high quality F/J HKG-NYC service.

For the economy class market, there is strong competition, as every airline in the Northern Hemisphere competes for NYC-HKG traffic (even Aeroflot.. JFK-SVO-HKG! ) , especially KAL, CAL and Asiana, they sell RT tickets for around USD$550 year-round. So with the decreased load factor UA & CO cannot depend on Y-class revenues on NYC-HKG direct routes.

Offtopic: In my firm the housing subsidy is HKD$20K per month, paid in $$$, for relocated entry-level positions, and that is in addition to their salary!

Too bad I can't relocate to HK