changing planes in Atlants on Delta Airlines
 

I'm flying from Detroit to Fort Lauderdale with a 37 minute layover in Atlanta. This is my first layover. How easy is it to change planes?

You can't possibly know that. Even the slightest delay is going to cause problems.

Exactly right. There is no way of predicting what will happen on a particular day in the future. Most times you'll make the connection, but sometimes you won't. I generally wouldn't book this tight a connection, but I would in certain circumstances (e.g., not critical I arrive on time, later flights available that same day, significant time savings vs. the next flight, etc.).

It will be easy only assuming that your original flight into ATL is on time or early. For future reference, I would never schedule a 37 minute connection in ATL, or any airport for that matter, if at all possible. That said, ATL is very logically laid out and transportation between concourses is fast and readily available. You should have no problems if your inbound flight is on time. Even if you're on time coming in, though, your flight to FLL will likely already be boarding when your inbound flight has landed.

37 minutes is only 2 minutes above the Minimum Connection Time of 35 minutes. This will be very tight if you arrive on time and your connection is departing on time. That said, both DTW-ATL and ATL-FLL run pretty frequently so unless you're on one of the last flights of the night, you'll have back-up options to get to FLL, as well as plenty of flights to PBI or MIA that you could be rebooked on.

Now, depending on how far out your trip is, Delta frequently makes minor (to major) schedule adjustments, with most schedule changes finalizing about 30-60 days out. If the schedule changes to shorten the connection by even 3 minutes, you'll be violating minimum connection time and thus will be eligible for a schedule change that will allow you to either 1) get a new itinerary with a longer layover or if you're lucky 2) get DL to rebook you on a DTW-FLL nonstop.

Additional note to ease some of the burden: DL usually pads its schedules a bit. There is a good chance that if you depart DTW on-time, you may arrive in ATL a little early, providing a little more cushion. There is no guarantee of this happening day of, however.

Don't forget that a plane that is up to 14 minutes late is still considered on time for the DOT statistics, so even a good on time rate may not be as good as it looks in this situation.

This is true, but I am talking about a true on-time arrival.

Delta seems to target an average delay of about 0 minutes if you look at their on-time stats (some months they are on average 1 minute early, some they are on average 1 minute late, but it's roughly 0 minutes).

Since delays have a long tail (i.e., many planes are delayed by many hours) whereas arrivals have a firm lower bound (obviously no flight can be less than 0 minutes, but even beyond that, a plane still has to fly from point A to point B with some variation due to winds). This means that, statistically, the median Delta flight arrives early - and probably something like 60-75% of them do if I had to guess. Then there are 10% that arrive "on time" per the DoT (0-14 min delay) but are delayed, and then the remaining 10-15% that are actually delayed per DoT stats.

Yeah, my question would be if this was booked as a 37 minute connection or was there a schedule change that made it shorter? If there was a change, I would try calling DL as seeing if I could get on the non stop DTW-FLL. If not, I might consider trying the 37 minute connection, assuming it wasn't the last flight of the day. Even if I miss it, there is probably another flight in about an hour.

Statistically yes, OP will most likely make their connection. But again, seat location and connecting gate information is a big driver on connection success.

An on-time flight does not guarantee a successful connection at Atlanta with a 37 minute connection window. That's all I'm saying.

I would agree that 50 minutes would have a 100% successful connect rate at Atlanta if the inbound is on time (and no shenanigans like a jetway not working) for an individual that has no mobility issues. That 13 minute covers contingencies on gate location, inbound flight seat, and boarding door close time.

Understood. All I am saying is that even if DL is on time 85% of the time, the plane might only be arriving on time or earlier 70-75% of the time (note: all these numbers are made up). Usually this would be no big deal, but with only a 37 minute connection it could make a difference.

I would be very nervous about a 37-minute connection in ATL, especially if seated towards the back of the plane.