Originally Posted by
mecabq
Not really. United Express flights are treated the same as United main-line in all respects in Star Alliance. blue1 doesn't exist anymore; they, along with Croatia and Adria, used to be defined as affiliate members, but that distinction went away.
I think I'm arguing semantics at this point so I won't bother. Regardless of how exactly it's defined, should Cathay come over to Star, Dragonair would, in all likelihood, join as well.