While were on the subject of clarification:
Point 3. The company provides a retirement plan in the form of 15.5% of a pilot's base salary each month which can either be taken as cash (i.e. taxable salary), or can be put into a Hong Kong tax-free "401-K" account. This 15.5% is NOT tax-free to the IRS, so, even if a US citizen or permanent resident puts it into a tax-free account in Hong Kong, he or she still has to report it as taxable income to the IRS.
Upon retirement, if one has NOT been taking it as cash, but rather has been putting it into the "401-K" account, one can take all of the company's contributions, as well as all one's own personal, additional contributions, as a lump-sum cash payout.
It's basically a Hong Kong-style 401-K into which the company puts 15.5% of your salary, and into which you can put a certain percentage, as well. It's tax-advantaged in Hong Kong, but not tax-advantaged at all for US citizens.
Hope that clears it up.
One doesn't RETIRE from Cathay Pacific. One QUITS. The only difference between retiring and quitting is that retirees get some sort of reduced-fare travel benefits. That's IT! No retiree health care, no defined-benefit pension (i.e. years of service x a percentage x 5 highest years of earnings). That went out with the contract change in 1993, I believe.