This is Deja Vu all over again.
I left Delta during "project 7.0" in 1994 and I was line mtc.. Never thought this would happen again! Maybe it did after 9/11.
If you are eligible to take the early retirement, you would be crazy not to ,unless you feel very, very strongly that Delta will be around 10 yrs from now- and they probably will be, but you don't know what shape the airline will be in or where future cuts will be made. You will be sitting on a bubble for the next ten years. Not an enviable position to be in.
If you are under 35, you have a lot of life left in you and this is a great time to think career change-you have some thirty years to figure it out and get your lives back on track. You don't want to be facing this decision when you are in your fifties! Starting over in your fifties is way scarier!
If your are between 35 and 55, you are in as good a place as any. With early outs and furloughs, any future reductions will cut the airline to the bone. If Delta survives, you will too. And, Delta probably will survive. You have a lot of time invested with this company.
In any case, if you have not been trimming the fat in your personal budgets, you need to start right away and start saving for that rainy day and retirement.
The ages I used above are for reference only. I know a lot of people in their fifties and sixties who have a lot more intelligence and energy than I do and can come out of this smelling like a rose no matter what they do! I also know that most of my co-workers rode it out in 94 and Some took the golden hand shake offered in the 2000's; and the rest are now in their mid to late fifties looking at this great package and the next ten years.
I guess the moral of this post is this, you can expect this every ten years or so. The question is, where do you want to be financially ten years from now and plan accordingly.
Best of luck