Originally Posted by apoivre
MH is a major airline while the Associate program is for smaller regional carriers (and no airline has so far joined it, BTW, it's only in the works). And I don't think an airline can join the Associate program first as your choice of words seem to imply, and then be upgraded to full membership
who knows... have seen an article 2 days ago that they plan to sell 30 aircraft (737s and 747s) to generate additional cash (along with their HQ building in KL)... I'm not sure what else they can do except downsizing (at least temporarily)... all of their European and US routes are non-profitable. and until recently they did some craziest things marketing -wise (i.e. you was able to buy F seat on PEN-KUL leg of their LON-KUL service for RM 230... this is nothing provided one would able to drink a bottle of DP (as some have proven) which is MORE expensive. needless to say it also generated confusion along the pax when MH mixed holiday and business traffic on the route... I preferred SQ LHR-SIN-PEN over direct MH LHR-PEN exactly to avoid holidaying traffic.
AC