I did not pick the second flight but what was offered for the fare I selected. I just selected SGN to LHR via HKG.

In similar circumstances Royal jordanian offered me a hotel when i arrived in Amman (that was KUL to LHR).

In any case its not a problem. I have booked Marriott SkyCity and my employer will pick up the bill :) But they shouldn't complain. By picking this pair of flights the ticket cost me £2900 instead of over £8000.

In other words you voluntarily select this connecting flight. There's a difference between a forced long or overnight layover and voluntary one. In your case, other flight options are there it's just you chose not to pay for the extra amount, £5100 in this case. I believe even if the earlier flights are completely sold out, your stopover would still be considered as a voluntary one. A forced long/overnight layover means CX does not even schedule any earlier flight that would allow you to avoid the long/overnight layover.

So was your RJ connecting a voluntary long/overnight layover?

I wouldnt quite to the extreme say noone would pay for it

TK/ turkey govt pays for the hotel for connection over 8 hrs. Its just if the airline/ city/ country wants the traveller. Hkg/cx needs that NOT tho

I arrive PEK-HKG at 1130pm and depart next day HKG-ORD at 11 am.

I would be happy to pay for an overnight at airport hotel if I could get a CX reduced rate. My past experiences with other airlines is that they have some rooms reserved at airport hotels for delays, cancelations etc. at discounted rates for that airline. All I want is one of these rooms at the discounted rate

RJ was voluntary in the same way that the CX flight is. With RJ I arrived sometime in the morning and next flight was six hours later. I was just making my way to departures area and RJ lounge when they asked if I would like to have a hotel room. I said "yes please" and they arranged transit visa and took me away to Golden Tulip nearby. Nothing special but it was a bed and i did get a few hours sleep and I wasn't expecting this.

On that trip to KUL BA tickets in business were £7000 min, CX was about the same and RJ came in at £2300. RJ stops in BKK on the way to KUL but this worked out fine as I had to make a stop in BKK anyway to complete another bit of work for the company.

On my last trip I had an overnight transit in AMM and had already booked a night at Marriott. RJ did again ask me if I wanted a free night at hotel but I declined.

oh yea that reminds me of a similar campaign with another country earlier...i think that's Singapore :p

My question was why would anyone at CX offer this ? not what other airlines might offer, sorry for not making it very clear

Not sure if question was directed at me. But I am not questioning at all whether CX should offer it or not. Just wanted to know that if they do offer as a matter of course I wouldn't have bothered booking a hotel myself. Now that I know they don't I have booked a room (guided in my choice of hotel by the experience of members on this thread). So thank you for all of the comments.

It's common for middle eastern carriers (QR, EK, EY, Turkish, etc.) to provide accommodation, not in terms of "overnight" connection but for connections like more than 8 hours, given that the connection is the shortest on schedule and that the travellers are paying certain fare sub-classes.

I can understand why the OP has this expectation / question in mind, if he is flying with middle east carriers (in fact he did have such experience with RJ). Bear in mind that middle east carriers are mostly network carriers with a significant portion of connection traffic .

Having said that, LHR is usually well served by airlines with multiple daily frequencies, so short connections are not really necessary (unless they are chosen).