yea, it seems like HND will be the only safe route going forward.

I don't know the #s myself, but I think there must be corporate demand for HKG-Japan cash F tickets. It could very well be Japanese corporates (FWIW, there are almost always Japanese passengers in CX F when I've flown those routes).

Otherwise I cannot explain why Japan has been the outlier for so long, compared to the other regional flights where CX appears totally uninterested in protecting F (MNL, TPE, BKK, SIN, etc). At least for MNL, TPE, BKK I entirely understand - even without seeing the figures I don't think I'm going out on a limb to think there is virtually zero cash demand at an attractive yield (**key words: attractive yield**) on these routes. The flights are almost all partner award travelers connecting in F, with a smaller subset of ex-outport fliers buying F tickets or AM award tickets booked into F. I know there are folks who will cry bloody murder in here, but the fact is it is zero additional charge (and frequently cheaper) to buy an ex-outport F ticket than it is an ex-HKG F ticket. So the customer is getting more bang for his buck. And perhaps more hardnosed, it's not like the ex-MNL customer has a choice to go pay for F somewhere else and take his business elsewhere. That customer is still going to buy/redeem his F ticket ex-MNL, transit HK, maybe grumble on FT about it but in reality will be perfectly satisfied that the 15 hour segment to JFK was F class. To BKK it is possible, just not on CX. You can fly EK and perhaps TG also offers it, although I don't know with what consistency.

So long story short, the only explanation I have is the demand isn't (and has never been) there at any type of reasonable yield for those sectors.