This is what Delta tells every passenger:

The Early Bird Catches the Plane

When you’ve got a plane to catch, it’s important to arrive on time and ready. But it's often hard to tell how long everything is going to take. That’s why we’ve created the suggested check-in requirement times for various locations below. To get a general idea of when you should arrive at the airport, add the helpful check-in times below to the current security wait time. It’s that simple.

Remember, it’s your responsibility to arrive at the airport with enough time to complete all ticketing, baggage check and security clearance procedures to arrive at the gate ready to board. If you don't complete the check-in process by these deadlines, you won't make your flight and change fees may apply. We don’t want that to happen, so keep these times top of mind when planning your airport arrival.
A Great Rule of Thumb

Always arrive at the airport at least 75 minutes prior to departure for travel within the U.S. If you're traveling within the U.S. and checking bags, your baggage must be present at the check-in counter and checked in at least 30 minutes before your scheduled departure time and you are required to be at the gate and ready to board at least 15 minutes before your scheduled departure time.


I think that's pretty clear. If you aren't on time for our flight, and you miss it, then that's your fault. (unless it's a misconnect, in which case there are a myriad of service recovery tools available that our agents can provide) If you're at the airport bar 10 minutes before departure... your fault! Don't ask us to bring the jetway back, load your bag, check you in, find you a seat and in the meantime delay 180 people and make a few of them miss their connections, and also delay the inbound flight waiting for the gate, and the other flight that's waiting for the rampers that are all tied up with this flight. "Delta is ready when you are" was the tagline 30 years ago. We don't live in that world any more. As an old salt once told an air traffic controller-- "Poor planning on your part doesn't constitute an emergency on mine"

Our business depends on running an on time operation as best we can and as safely as possible. Lots of examples of stupid planning on Delta's part. This is about fixing those issues. You can't fix what you don't know is broke.