When you get into work on Monday you’ll find that the Continental Airlines brand has vanished for good. That’s when the airline and United, the 4th and 3rd largest carriers respectively, will adopt a single passenger reservation system. The 2010 $3.2 billion merger, created on paper – and now by brand – the world’s largest airline: United Airlines.

The new company spent much of last year re-branding as a single carrier, and have been re-painting the planes in a kind-of-combination of logos including Continental’s old blue-gold-white Wiffle-ball globe image on the tail, and a new-style United name on the fuselage.

OK, we absolutely acknowledge that mergers are often more about the boardroom than the brand. But based on the 2012 ratings by airline passengers in Brand Keys’ Customer Loyalty Engagement Index, maybe they should have reversed the design process. Put the blue-and-white United “U” tulip on the tail and “Continental” on the planes’ chassis, because here’s how airline brands ranked:

  1. Continental
  2. Southwest
  3. Delta
  4. United
  5. JetBlue
  6. US Airways
  7. American
  8. Midwest

So early Saturday morning, the Continental.com website will disappear in favor of a United-branded site, and the Continental brand will fly off into the sky to join defunct airline brands like TWA, Braniff, Eastern, and Pan Am.

Someone once noted that there’s no empirical test for taste, and we agree. We’ll leave the liking or disliking of the new visual mashup to you. For some there’s some small comfort that they ended up keeping a piece of the Continental brand.

Ultimately the real test will be whether they keep Continental’s loyal customers as well.