Pasa and Cyril,
Ok, I get it: you both know how the system works and you know how to bid.
So tell me this then: why would you bother going to all the trouble of sitting down in front of a computer and submitting a priority 1 leave request that has no chance of getting filled?
What's the point of that?
There will always be insufficient slots, or you may have insufficient points (or, with a different allocation system, insufficient seniority) for everyone to take leave at Christmas or in August. What do you want the company to do: hire another 1000 FOs so we can all have leave at the same time?
The point is that Cathay is (and will probably always be) running undermanned, so you have to wait your turn to take the highly prized leave weeks. In a previous airline one waited for the seniority, in this one you wait for your points.
It's all the same really.
No one who knows the system puts in a leave request that they know will be refused...