Five ways to get brand value out of Airline Mergers

I wonder what it would be like to take a flight on the new Northwelta from Boston to Singapore via Detroit and Tokyo on a Boeing 747, once the US$17 billion merger between Northwest and Delta comes through. Will I get the Northwest experience or a predominantly Delta one, a mish-mash or none?
There’s been a lot of chatter around the merger, though more negative than positive (check out the one by Center for Asia Pacific Aviation for a different view). But I’ve hardly read anything about how the merger would affect the brand. Even though the new airline (largest in the US with over 70,000 employees) will be operated under the Delta name, which currently doesn’t have any 747s and also doesn’t fly to Asia Pacific, the brand experience can certainly be enhanced to make the sum greater than the parts combined….