One of my friends used to work with an Aussie bank. Their SGP Office required SIN-HKG travel to be on CX given CX's competitive I class fares. His HK based colleagues ended up travelling on SQ for their travel to SIN, given the premium that CX demanded for HK based contracts. (People weren't happy, given that most SIN based flyers were Krisflyer loyal, and the HKG based ones were MPC loyal - but the rule stuck)

Working in a bank -i've seen what the article refers to, first hand. A fair few banks have restricted regional travel (usually defined as <3/4 hrs) to Economy, at least for the junior/mid level staff and most are under major cost pressures - travel costs being the top cost cutting target.
My last employer put a 'lowest available option' rule (which worked well for me, given my non-consensus leanings towards CX).