Following news in April that Virgin America was being acquired by Alaska Air Group, fans of Virgin and its purple-lit cabins have been pretty sad — some of them litigiously so — about the prospect of the brand and all its amenities disappearing. Alaska execs have been careful so far not to commit to anything with regard to the scrapping of all those perks, even though the Alaska brand has always been a bare-bones budget one with older airplanes and no such amenities as personal video screens, let alone in-seat ordering or on-demand TV. And as the Business Times reports from an event Wednesday at SFO celebrating the finalization of the merger, Alaska Airlines Chairman and CEO Brad Tilden says no decisions have been made about how to incorporate the new brand, and they won't be until the first quarter of next year.

Alaska just settled a lawsuit last week brought by Virgin-affiliated consumers, a week ahead of the closing of the $4 billion purchase of Virgin. At Wednesday's event, the airline unveiled a ceremoniously painted plane with both the Virgin and Alaska branding on it — something we had a glimpse of last month. But it remains to be seen if Alaska is going to create something like a boutique sub-brand that retains some of Virgin's bells and whistles.

“We probably do have some instincts on these things, but a lot of decisions haven’t been made,” Tilden told the Business Times. “We actually do need to see the data and have some more ‘process’ to occur.”

That process, as the paper surmises, likely has to do with customer loyalty data on Virgin customers. Tilden assures the paper, though, that customers won't see big cuts in routes out of SFO. "The initial growth will be focused on the Bay Area," he said. "We’re not doing this transaction to shrink in the bay area. We’re doing this to grow in the Bay Area."

Addressing the public's confusion over the deal between these two very different brands, the company launched a marketing campaign Wednesday as well using the URL DifferentWorks.com, featuring a video with pairs of people doing wacky and fun things together, set to a cover of "It Takes Two."

And at Wednesday's event, as the Business Times notes, they served bacon-topped doughnuts with coffee and had a sign that said, "Bacon on a donut seemed like a weird combo, too." Also, they had signs and t-shirts that said things like “One hook-up we won’t regret,” and "We’ve just updated our relationship status,” clearly trying to appeal to Virgin's younger, hipper and urban customer base.

Here's hoping that the marketing campaign is a good sign that Alaska doesn't throw away a good thing when they see it.

They are, however, still laying off 300 Virgin America employees and shutting down the airline's Burlingame offices.

Previously: Alaska Air's Virgin Takeover Hasn't Left The Runway