Agreed. The hybrid tulip + meatball pictured upthread would make no sense to anyone under 50. CO discarded the meatball when Bethune came in nearly 30 years ago. There's no equity there anymore.

A decade ago the tulip stood for many very negative associations with the flying public -- labor disputes, militant employees, marathon bankruptcy, the SFH, terrible service / performance metrics. But the Continental name had much less equity in offshore markets. Hence the weird shotgun marriage: keep the United name, slap it onto the Continental livery.

Remember that DL made it a first-tier priority to erase the Northwest brand as quickly as possible, and that the NW fleet was stainless steel + decals at that point which made rebranding the airplanes go faster -- IMO a deliberate NW step taken when the airline was in its buy-me-please phase.