Delta, My Frenemy

Ah, Delta Airlines.
We have had a love/hate relationship since the start of (travel) time. We are like the friends who are really nice to each others (inter)face, but then behind our backs, talk a whole lotta smack. If this were high school, we would have already stolen each other's boyfriends, slept with each other's favorite teachers, and scribbled over our faces in the Yearbook.
But I digress.
It seems no matter how I try to avoid it, Delta always provides the best deal to the parts of the country I travel (usually, the Northeast). I've got their sky miles, and like their online booking engine, more so than Travelocity or Orbitz. Once, Delta offered me a $200 credit for taking an EARLY flight that got me to my destination ahead of schedule. And - they are the only airline that proactively offers TWO bags of peanuts, knowing that one is, well, just not enough.
But there's where the happy story ends.
Delta, for reasons known only to the airline scheduling gods, changes their flight schedules with record speed. In booking a flight to Hartford yesterday, I have already received two, yes TWO, notices of a change in itinerary. In 24 hours! This reminds me of the Christmas of 2002, where Delta canceled my flight home only AFTER I had been dropped at the very busy, and nearly impossible to get to Logan Airport (BOS). Their reason? Not enough pilots. And, don't even get me STARTED on the luggage disaster of 1998, when my bag arrived wrapped in duct tape to my local airport (fyi: read your airline contacts - they cap that compensation!). I'm still reeling from the make-up case loss in Ontario, Ca 2005 (that Sephora lipstick was discontinued, dammit).
Yet, like a bad soap opera, I keep coming back for more. You're the habit I just can't quit, Delta. You are the airline I can not avoid. I think we'll continue to keep slapping each other around until we - well - learn to like it. Or until I learn to change my name on the passenger manifest.