I honestly am unaware of what value Delta offers, least of all a competitive advantage. The Skymiles program is next to useless for redemptions (unless you want a seat from Raleigh to St Louis at 5am on Wednesday), their alliance is a pretty sad comparison to *A, they decimated partner earning, you need to make spend thresholds to get Medallion status (unless you live and fly overseas), the domestic product is old and tired (their inflight TV has 10% of our channels), the international product is only comparable to UA if you get a lie-flat herringbone seat and their main domestic hub is a disaster that can make even EWR look shiny and nice....and you get a bunch of SWU's that you can't use unless you are paying full fare. None of my customers will pay for the premium cabin on DL when I can get them a seat on AF for the same price, and I've actually had some customers refuse to fly on DL even if I could get them a free upgrade from Y - they'd rather pay for Z on AF.

Some Diamonds and Platinums might get easy domestic upgrades, but that is totally dependent on the route, day and time - no different than UA....and DL agents at ATL have been known to raise upgrade shenanigans to a level UA agents could only dream of, with complete immunity from their supervisors and management.

I think only AA is making a real effort to improve its product, image and reach out to HVF's - but of course that is because they are bouncing along the bottom. I hope AA does not merge with US, but pulls out of their dive, cleans up and positions itself as a strong competitor to UA.