Originally Posted by
BenA
So you are exactly at the minimum. You'll be fine if everything is on time, and honestly for a flight to Sydney they would probably hold it if the inbound from DTW is only a minute or two late anyway.
Originally Posted by
flyerCO
The SYD flight is the one DL flight that I find most likely to be held if there's any delay for inbounds. It's the only DL flight to that part of the world, plus with the curfew at SYD they can't risk coming in early. Get a favorable wind/light load and they sometimes have to delay just to ensure it doesn't get in too early.
+1, as noted in the duplicate thread on the same topic (and I've had them hold LAX-SYD much longer than a few minutes for connecting passengers; more than an hour once). However, it appears that the OP cares about the MCT more as an excuse to get an el cheapo EWR-DTW-LAX-SYD itinerary changed to ATL-LAX-SYD for no extra cost, not out of actual worry about the connection in LAX.
My experience is that this is one of the safest 35 minute connections in the system. Unlike most flights, there's very little cost to DL if they hold the LAX-SYD flight, and considerable cost if they don't. Nearly all of the beyond SYD connections will be to cities within Australia and New Zealand for which there are many options, so reaccommodations for any missed connections aren't likely to be expensive at all. Because the plane is turning around and flying back to LAX with enough time on the ground to asborb some arrival delay, they're not risking operations further along much. And the crew will be in SYD for a day anyway, so they don't have to be anywhere else.
Meanwhile, the cost to DL of reaccommodating customers in LAX who miss the LAX-SYD (due to a late-arriving DTW-LAX flight which likely has tens of passengers connecting to SYD) is considerably higher, especially if the next day's flight is reasonably full.
All these factors are presumably why my experience is that they hold the LAX-SYD flight for connecting passengers more than most other flights. Of course, there's no guarantee if the DTW-LAX flight is even slightly delayed; if you're not comfortable with a 35 minute connection, you shouldn't have booked it, but it's very unlikely there's anything that DL will be willing to do about it four days before your trip. Personally, I do prefer a longer connection primarily for a pre-flight shower, which is the single biggest difference to me in terms of comfort for 14 hours in coach.