Originally Posted by
JimInOhio
Looking up CX 801 (ORD-HKG), it hasn’t overflown Russian airspace for as far back as my FlightAware account can look. In fact, it’s flying the same route as UA 881 (ORD-HND).
Right, but UA still doesn't want to fly it. JFK is CX's major cash cow (BOS to a lesser extent) because they own the market. I think going easy on the West coast routes partially comprises an olive branch to UA (i.e. remember the full page newspaper ad they ran through their union complaining about Russia overflights being unfair?).