Fly in a day or two early. We took the flight from SYD to LAX, continuing to MSP 2 years ago. Flight got in late because they had to pull 2 people off the plane after we had already backed away from the gate (document issues, don't know why they were allowed to board in the first place). Got into LAX late. Then, customs in LAX was a disaster. Slower than molasses and they let everybody with earlier connecting flights to clear first (not a big deal). LAX is not a great place to enter the U.S., at least not on Delta flights. Dirty, dingy, and slow, slow, slow. Anyway, I was glad that we chose the 4 hour layover to MSP.