Those hiring minimums were from the last round of hiring they did when they could be more selective. Only half the people in my class had type ratings in their aircraft. While they will take people with 1500 hours, they really want people they can upgrade (3,000 hours) They have upgraded nearly every FO who has the time, and the current FOs wont be able to upgrade for a few years so if you a lot of time, I am sure they will be interested.
The bid period is 56 days and there are two lines with alternating 8 days on/6 off. They don't mind you trading schedules with other pilots as long as the flights are covered and it does not require excessive airline travel. I know one guys wife was sick, so he got approval to go home early when a coworker volunteered to come out. Some people trade entire rotations with other people and end up doing a 15/13 schedule that gives you more days off in a year. Also, with the new PTO system, if you need to take a specific day off for a reason, just submit it to scheduling and they will approve it assuming their is coverage.
Delta controls the flight benefits, not DPJ. There are no buddy passes and Delta does not allow you to have a "travel companion." Your spouse/domestic partner, children, and parents get flight benefits.
There has been lots of growth and movement. I think there were 80 pilots a year ago, and now there are 200. On the Excel side, the most senior FO was hired in May. They more than doubled the Excel fleet in 2014 and will continue to get a few more in 2015. The CJ fleet grew a lot too. Last I heard, they wanted to get 15 CJs in 2015 but I am not on that fleet so I don't know the specifics.