Remember the cardinal rule of trying to get on the first flight of the day to your planned destination.
If you wait till later all the delays over sales snafus and what mother nature can throw into the mix
will have to be contended with. The last flight of the day (night) is almost certain to be a disaster in the making !
And beware of the situation where the last and first flight "IS THE ONLY FLIGHT" !

That being noted careful about hub to hub city travel. You have more here than meets the eye ---
Rerouted passengers from one hub to another - same for non-revs in higher classes of passes -
dead heading crew members - sure the fight is open to the first hub "BUT" then does the next flight have
the same open condition?
There are times of the year when it is best to stay at home - "Spring Break" - Thanksgiving - 10 days before
Christmas (Christmas Day exception if flights are operating) - Presidents day weekend - travel during these
times plan on alternatives and overnighting in out of the way places.

AH - HA - THE THRILL OF BEATING THE SYSTEM AND ACTUALLY GETTING A SEAT IN PRIME TIME !
Well Good Luck with that !

But don't be too discouraged - sometimes one does actually fly over cuckoo's nest !

PLANNING - AND MORE OF THAT - think "Positively" - after all if Phileas Fogg can get Around the World in 80 days
one should be able to get anywhere on Delta in 80 hours - Just don't be Don Quixote and Dream the Impossible Dream !

Well enough of that banter - like the Flight Attendant says the nearest exit may be behind you - the best way to travel
is with a paid revenue ticket - pay attention and know when that is the case - sometimes a ticket with reservation is a
better deal than over nighting in a hotel in a "I told you so" scenario.
The Buddy Passes are best left to when the flights are at no more than 80% full.
Pay close attention to the weather - realize that other airlines may reroute their passenger in your planned direction !

Another thing to consider don't put all of your travel plans into one (city) basket - - -
West Coast - think SAN-LAX-SNA-LGB---SBA -X- SFO-OAK-SJC---MRY -X- SEA-PDX (Strangely YVR)
East Coast - BOS-JFK-LGA-EWR -X- DCA-BWI-PHL---IAD (And AMTRAK connecting all these) plus small rural out of the norm airports
Midwest - ORD-MDW-MKE (AMTRAK and Chicago Metro connections)
Florida - MIA-FLL-MCO -X- TPA-RSW
All these are close enough to consider for an travel alternative !

Even if you use the abomination touchable Windows 8 there are ways to get you where you need to go without touching much.

After all if Delta can't be "The World's Most Trusted Airline" ! - "We Love to Fly and it Shows" ! - So "Keep Climbing" !
Delta for the most part "Delta is Ready When You Are" !

But if you don't come out and standby for a flight Delta may not fill a flight that you could be on - "Give it a try at least !
Strange things happen at the last moment at the gate portal to your travel destination - fly over the cuckoo' nest - put one over on good ole Delta !