Let me give you the perspective of a frequent, loyal Continental flyer (100k miles/year) who also pays attention to brands…

Continental needed this merger to get a large enough route structure to compete with the newly large Delta for corporate contracts.

My first reaction to the even steven mishmash was disgust. They threw away a nice United identity from a great design shop.

But my second reaction was…..looks like the Continental product I know and am loyal to is here to stay.

It’s hard to see on the surface, but Continental has prided itself on doing a lot of things on the service side just a hair better than the competition — for a frequent flyer. Their planes are cleaner, the staff generally less grumpy on board, food a bit more generous, and generally the organization seems to have a common culture. Read about ‘Gordon Bethune’ their former CEO and you’ll get a sense…

So, that legacy Continental paint job on the United planes will give me assurance ‘my guys’ will be calling more shots than not. As we know, visual identity is often more important to the mind than the name itself.

One of the biggest risks for them is losing their loyal base to fears that United’s way will trump. Keeping that legacy Continental paint scheme, ugly as it is, goes a long way to saying to current Continental customers ‘the reliable old Continental you’ve trusted is still running a big part of the show.’

As for United, well United killed its brand by cutting corners on service, keeping unpainted, dirty planes, running a late operation, and treating its employees badly through bankruptcy for several years this decade. Continental has proven itself superior on every financial and operating metric over time, but just didn’t have the scale needed now that Delta and Northwest merged.

It’s a shame because it was a beautifully designed identity, going back to the Saul Bass days.