But they SAY FO gets priority. I just looked at the Medallion Benefits page, says:

Dedicated Phone line

FO Priority, GM, High Priority, PM, Higher Priority, DM, VIP

So, FOs SHOULD get the dedicated line, but my experience as an FO mirrors the OPs. Just before Sandy, I made the trip that pushed me to GM, but it took a day or two for the status to hit. I wanted to make a change and I called as an FO and the recording said I could request a callback and they would call me back in 8 hours. I went to the airport and changed it there.

The next day I wondered if I should push the return back later, if the electricity would be off, so I called. I was a GM by this time.

Enter your Skymiles number

Did that

Enter your PIN

Did that

Rings

"Gold Desk"

They told me I had changed it once and couldn't change it again, but as a GM I got through instantly, while as an FO I didn't have a hope.

So, this is another instance where Delta uses the word "priority" or something like that because words are cheap.