The news everywhere of the Delta/Northwest commitment ceremony being a done deal has little or no effect on passengers and will not for quite some time. According to Delta (they’re the daddy – Northwest is the mommy), you’re looking at 12-24 months, integration-wise.

For now, proceed as usual to the appropriate check-in counter or website. Yes, they’re now the same thing — Richard Tyler, the uniform designer for Delta, briefed Northwest attendants on upcoming changes to their work duds last week in Detroit — but an airline as big and sprawling as Northwest doesn’t just disappear overnight.