geh065,
Are you involved with your local flying club?? Most people that I know that have a passion for flying are in some way or another involved with GA and get more satisfaction out of flying light airplanes than flying for Cathay. Everyone but you it seems sees this job as what it is, just a job! Actually if I could slide into another career earning 3/4 of what I now earn I will happily leave. This job is so regulated, controlled, monitored that there is no longer any job satisfaction, not to mention that morale is so low that there isn't any camaraderie left anymore.
Furthermore we are not talking about a "youngster" or a "budding young aviator", we are talking about a 41 year old individual at the peak of his banking career with a family. If he were a close friend of mine I would try anything and everything to dissuade him from this cadet scheme. you can be naive and foolish when you're young, but being naive and foolish in your 40s is plain stupid.
This is not a dream of accomplishing a challenging feat like sailing around the world, it is a dream to tick the box of having been an airline pilot. OK done that now what???