I think I can answer the reason here, with a fairly simple illustration. Of my Hk-based social/professional friends people I interface with most regularly (I don't know how to better describe, these are "friends" and "associates", not like my actual mates but people who are in positions in their companies similar to mine and we know each other somewhat), I would say DM is probably the most common title. There are also DM+, IN and VIP. Pls ignore judgement about our lame conversation starters, it is true this is an easy way to break the ice in HK, since Cathay has a big role in a lot of people's monthly and often weekly lives here. It is very easy common ground to start a chat. Despite cumulative hours and hours of small talk about Cathay and a lot of details shared among people, I had never heard of this benefit, not had it ever come up. Seat guarantee, yes. Lounges, drinks on board, J and F seat design, wine, events, all the time conversation. But "cancellation/ticket hold benefit", never

I only read about this benefit here, as it was shutting down. I really felt i had missed something great. My hunch is it was probably heavily used by a small percent of DMs in the known and a majority of us were none the wiser.