Thought I would share a fortuitous (for me) update.

The cheap flight that precipitated this thread in the first place actual leaves in a few hours. I had almost forgot about it when I got a robo-call from the DM desk about an hour ago regarding this flight; my first segment is delayed almost 50 minutes. I just got off the phone with the DM desk and my cheap ticket has been completely refunded! ^^^^^

I don't know about your DL experiences, but out of the 150+ flights I take a year, I think I've gotten an early robo-call regarding a delay no more than once or twice (Usually you don't know a flight is delayed until you're still standing at the gate 5 minutes after departure). I think I need to go buy a lottery ticket as soon as I get off work!