That little FC in my FF account has helped. Some of the old timers see it and when nothing is going right, once in a while they tend to let you be treated like you should.

Once there were several of us waiting to get on a flight and the counter person told me that as I was PM and FC, I won hands up.

I say keep it there in case it works once in 5 years. At the same time, I now fly on other airlines when ever the fare is cheaper. DL just beat CO and UA by 75% on a Transatlantic, so who knows, maybe it will help again.