I did call Delta. The agent said "I see you have a different spelling on your first name on one account. Okay, I'll go ahead and merge the accounts..."

I was like, "Wait a sec! How do you know it will work? Can you assure me I will get my miles in the right account? with the right name? my status will be there? how do I know my miles won't disappear?"

She said, "Okay, I'll just merge the two accounts."

I said, "Please don't automaton, I'll get the name fixed first."

Then I posted this thread. I'm thinking I'm going to go thru the hassle of changing my name via snail mail on the bad account, and when that is confirmed, I'll merge.

Ugh. Or I'll get lazy and gamble with 180,000 hard earned miles. I'll post eventually either way.