The world tails were a nightmare for flight crew, I would imagine, but as far as I'm aware there's no requirement on the part of flight crew to know other aircraft tailfins. "After company xxx" is normal to hear, and for a while "after the United xxx, Continental colours".

Also, I thought re-painting a tailfin was a pretty major job, having to re-weight the rudder etc, not just a tin of paint and a roller job, so they could have had a bloke removing the rest of the tailfin in the meantime instead of that QF half-a**ed job