I WAS an airlines kid. To be specific, I was a MAS kid. My dad worked with the national carrier as a cashier (or an accountant without the degree, we like to call it), and I spent a lot of time (well, a lot more than kids my age back then) prancing around the Penang airport, slurping root beer from the old A&W outlet and playing with colourful plastic balls in KFC.

Due to staff privileges, we often flew to Kuala Lumpur during our school holidays to visit our uncle and cousins at a very much discounted ticket price. So often, that I didn’t know it was actually possible to get to KL by car or bus back then. I thought everybody flew to KL, and I thought everybody flew with MAS.