stop with plane change
 

I'll be flying from los angeles to minneapolis, and I'm considering taking Southwest Airline. While I was checking out flight options, some of them stated that there will be 1 stop with plane change. How will that impact me during transit? What will happen to my checked in baggage? If the first leg of my flight got delayed, will there be a possibility that I might miss the second leg of my flight? It all sounds so risky to me, and yet its tempting to book this kind of flight as they are really cheap.

BTW, its my first time flying to US, and i've never experience plane changes during a flight before.

As long as both flights are on Southwest, your bags will be transferred automatically to the next flight. When you check in for the first flight, you'll be given a boarding pass for the next one, so when you reach the connection point, just get off the first plane and look at the departure screens to see which gate your connection departs from. Walk to that gate and board when it's time.

The airlines won't sell you a ticket that involves a connection that's too tight, and as long as it's all on one ticket, if you're delayed and miss the connection, the airline is obligated to put you on a later flight. Typically your bags will follow you.

Note that Southwest will NOT forward your bags to another airline if your connection involves a change of carriers. Unlike most airlines, Southwest doesn't have "interline" baggage agreements. I would not purchase tickets where one flight is on Southwest and another is on a different airline.

Gardyloo's advice is perfect!

Southwest doesn't fly non-stop LAX-MSP, and checking some random dates, there's no "direct" flight with stops either (in which case, it's same flight number and same aircraft), so everything you see are connections. Two flights, two flight numbers, two separate planes. Sure you can miss your connection if the first one is delayed significantly.

If you search on American Airlines or United's websites, they simply list the two flights. Delta and Southwest will have "1-stop" displayed on the search results. It simply means ONE CONNECTION.