I’ve been purposely quiet on yesterday’s announcement that American is rebranding the airline with a new logo and paint job. There are a handful of reasons why, most of which I won’t get into here. I have a soft spot in my heart for American. Having made many friends during my time there, a number of whom remain with the company, I am always careful about what I say about the place where I spent my first decade of post-college employment.

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Photo courtesy of American Airlines

The speculation about why now, and what is the hidden message is well documented on the interweb, so you don’t need to hear anything about that from me. I’ll just talk about what I think about the new livery. What I like: the large “American” on the forward fuselage. What I dislike: everything else. I will say that the stylized flag on the tail looked a lot less distasteful to me on pictures of an actual airplane as opposed to the digitized photos online. I had assumed that the flag would be featured somewhere prominently on the new livery. I had hoped for a more flowing flag rendering. Perhaps it will grow on me. Perhaps I will like it a lot better when I see it in person as a trusted friend has told me. We will see.

In the meantime, what do you think? Here’s a reader poll for you!

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