I've been looking at flights from Shanghai to Europe over the summer. The cheapest business class option I can find (cheaper by more than $1000 round trip) is on the Chinese carrier Ji Xiang Airlines through Helsinki. It takes about 8.5 hours. Finnair flies the same flight but their flight time is over 12 hours. I haven't pulled the trigger on the flight yet but I'd be lying if I said overflying Russia and a potential diversion there won't weigh into my decision.

That said, I think we are all old enough to weigh the pros and cons when making a purchasing decision and we don't need Kirby or any other CEO "looking out for us". In fact, he just wants to milk his profits a bit longer with less competition on some routes and doesn't care one bit about my risk overflying Russia.