In May 2006 my employer at the time sent me on an LHR-xHKG-TPE-xSIN-BOM-LHR trip. Company policy was to fly with BA wherever possible, and in Y+. I submitted the request (just for the route) and our corporate travel agent called me up and said "BA is available, but it's cheaper if you fly with Cathay Pacific in business class. Would that be OK?" ^ (My first ever J flight - discovered FT that week when looking up what lay in store, learnt how to get 30k bonus BA miles from a promotion being run at the time, ... )