I am sure anyone interested/eligible has already done the maths(or mathematics for the grandma nazis - grammar was never my thing - just maths).
So I have more than 4 years to my RA - so I would be eligible for 12months basic salary. No PF- no Housing - no Medical - no HDP etc.
If I was on full salary, no EFP but say full HDP, I would cost the company the same amount from 1st Sep 20 - 31st Mar 21. (yes add one month to both dates now that it is 30Sep start date)
So - how much is it costing CX? If you assume say 100 pilots take it(I doubt that it will be that high but Ive been wrong before) then that is probably about 10% of all Captains. So if you think the work rate in Hong Kong will be less than 90% from now till March next year, then it costs the company nothing to offer this. After that it saves them money.
With SLS2 (and presumably SLS3 in January 2021) the date slips out by another few weeks.
So my 'gut' instinct is that this is just an opportunity to get rid of some of us expensive guys for the eventual recovery. Plenty of time to train up the replacements - and new joiners will be DEFO/DESO on cos18.
So a very smart business decision IMHO.