Thanks for the link, 3cforme.

So check this out....

http://www.flightstats.com/go/Flight...shareDisplay=0

1) In fairness to Delta, all of the stats for the entire day, for all carriers, basically line up. Delta's flights are late during times when all flights are late. So it's not just DL.

But 2) The stats are just BUNK. This was my flight:
DL 642
7:55 AM - actual 8:17 AM
9:30 AM - actual 9:59 AM

The flight alert I got by phone & email, over an hour before the flight, already had it rescheduled at 8:25 AM. And we didn't even make it by then. I was in row 3 and I'm really, really, really certain that not even the airplane door was closed by 8:17, it's impossible. MAYBE the actual GATE door (inside the airport) was closed. MAYBE.

And once we did start rolling away from the gate, we sat on the ground for probably another 20 minutes+, which I guess is all built into the schedule, and is not the end of the world, but these timetables just don't tell the whole story about "on time".

(The arrival time is more significant but I don't actually remember exactly when the plane landed or when I could get off the bird.)