Get data-powered insights and trends into flights from San Francisco to Madrid to help you find the cheapest flights, the best time to fly and much more.
When flying from San Francisco to Madrid, you should consider leaving on a Wednesday and avoid Fridays if you are looking for the best rates. For your return to San Francisco, you’ll find the best rates on Mondays and the most expensive ones on Saturdays.
The cheapest month for flights from San Francisco to Madrid is February, where tickets cost $531 (return) on average. On the other hand, the most expensive months are June and December, where the average cost of round-trip tickets is $1,233 and $1,158 respectively.
No, with an average price for the route of $1,121, prices are generally cheapest when you fly direct.
To get a below average price on the flight from San Francisco to Madrid, you should book around 4 weeks before departure, which saves you about 15% compared to booking last minute. For the absolute cheapest price, our data suggests you should book 9 weeks before departure.
In the past 5 days, the cheapest round-trip tickets from San Francisco to Madrid were found on Delta ($855) and Scandinavian Airlines ($857).
There are 5 airlines that fly nonstop from San Francisco to Madrid. They are: Aer Lingus, American Airlines, British Airways, Finnair and Iberia. The cheapest price of all airlines flying this route was found with Finnair at $412 for a round-trip flight. On average, the best prices for this route can be found at Finnair.
Weekly flights between San Francisco and Madrid historically see delays in approximately 20% of cases, with the average delay over the past year being 204 minutes.
Typically, flights leaving in the early afternoon tend to face fewer delays, whereas flights in the evening have historically encountered delays more often.
Statistically, Monday is the day of the week with the fewest delays on this flight route, while Sunday has typically experienced more delays than other days.
Based on our data, Iberia have experienced the fewest delays on this route in the past 12 months, with only about 20% of their flights encountering any delays.
Lisbon (LIS) is the top choice – 40% of KAYAK users who clicked on 1-stop flights from San Francisco to Madrid picked an itinerary connecting there.
Flights via Atlanta (ATL) offer the most affordable fares, with an average round-trip price of $663.
Consider flying via Chicago (ORD) for the shortest journey. The average one-way travel time for flights connecting there is 14h 07m.
If you prefer a quick connection, Warsaw (WAW) often has the shortest layovers from San Francisco to Madrid, with an average of 1h 28m.
There are 3 cabin class options for the route. These are Business, Economy and Prem Economy. Perform a search on KAYAK to find the latest prices and availability for all cabin fares, which differ across airlines.
There is a maximum of 1 nonstop flight a day that takes off from San Francisco and lands in Madrid, with an average flight time of 11h 15m. The most common departure time is 5:00 pm and most flights take off in the afternoon. Each week, there are 3 flights.
Direct flights cover the 5,794 miles separating San Francisco to Madrid in about 11h 15m.
Early birds can take the earliest flight from San Francisco at 5:55 pm and will be landing in Madrid at 2:10 pm.
If you prefer to fly at night, the latest flight from San Francisco to Madrid jets off at 5:55 pm and lands at 2:10 pm.
Based on the flight data for the route from San Francisco (SFO) to Madrid (MAD), it appears that Tuesdays in February are generally the cheapest times to fly.
Booking Advance: Book your flight at least 60 days in advance for the best prices.
Cheapest Airline: Vueling is generally the cheapest airline for this route.
Direct or Layover: It's cheaper to fly with one stop rather than direct.
Cheapest Route: The cheapest route when flying between these two cities is directly from SFO to MAD.
AI-powered; AI can make mistakes.
| Low season | January |
|---|---|
| High season | December |
| Cheapest flight | $398 |
Direct departures
San Francisco to Madrid Barajas
Monday
Iberia
Iberia
Tuesday
Iberia
Iberia
Thursday
Iberia
Iberia
Saturday
Iberia
Iberia
Direct returns
Madrid Barajas to San Francisco
Monday
Iberia
Iberia
Tuesday
Iberia
Iberia
Thursday
Iberia
Iberia
Saturday
Iberia
Iberia
It was perfect! United Airlines staff was extremely caring, super friendly and professional
It was perfect! United Airlines staff was extremely caring, super friendly and professional
United has maintenance issues and can then never recover. No operations ability and simple issues always turn into multiple hours long cascading delays. Worst airline on earth.
I paid for a confirmed upgraded aisle seat and was moved to a center seat in the back of the plane at the last minute.
Horrifying Almost 2 million miles. Bring your own food and drink. One coffee or drink every three hours. Have to order meals on app more than 24 hours ahead Tiny and dirty bathrooms
Easy of boarding, helpfully staff at check in, surprisingly comfortable seating
Lost of requested seat assignments. Lost my husband's meal choice
My service dog and I were asked to deplane just before they closed the door - clearly very last minute they couldn’t find the documentation that I have filled out many many times before that is for flying service animals. I purposely purchase 3seats (a whole row) since he is large and not all passengers want to sit next to a dog on a cross country flight. The plane departed with my husband on it!!! They made me fill out a hard copy of the same form and had to reschedule me on a later flight where they could find 3 seats together!! I’ve done this so many times before - clearly the error was on their part in a technology glitch - but really people - do better!! Very traumatic - and my husband had to wait for us when he landed ….so bad. Poor pup was confused and tired.
My flight time was changed without any notification to me which ruined my time sensitive plans so I ended up completely changing my travel plans and no reimbursement.
No screens or meal options. Freezing cold. Dirty seats. Left late.
I liked that my son and I were reseated next to each other (we had different bookings). I liked that it was a directg flight and mostly on time. I liked that you provided pillows and blankets. Flight attendants were generally courteous. The messaging through wifi did not work well. The food was not good. Seats are very narrow and I felt slightly claustraphobic in the window seat.
The crew was excellent. What I did not enjoy was the food. I have taken many international flights and this was on the low end. Otherwise the trip was fine.
Seats were the most uncomfortable seats i ever experienced on a flight to Europe from Boston. It was a waist of money in buying premium seats for top dollars. I want my money back for what i paid extra for my seats. Awful conditions!
Boarding felt a little chaotic as everyone was waiting around the gate. Food was great, service was good.
Flight attendants in business class were rather indifferent While in second leg operated by Portugalia TAP subsidiary were outstanfy
The chicken was so dry it was impossible to eat. No substitute was offered. The port to charge my phone was broken and all I got was a shrug from the crew. The entertainment system was glitchy and subtitles didn’t load. Crew seemed fully uninterested and unfriendly.
The flight crew were absolute rock stars. When they came to the gate they looked like royalty, so chic. They also were extremely kind. Food was good and I loved the lack of plastic waste. The flight was lovely and smooth.
We were unable to check in due to technical problems on TAP’s end. The flight was delayed forty minutes with no reason given. We received timely notice of the flight delay. We were also notified of a gate change. The new gate was at a different terminal. When we got to the new terminal, we learned that we had to go back to the old terminal first to check in. This information should have been included along with the gate change notification. Also unexplained, the steward skipped us when offering breakfast.
Menzies group staff not very sympathetic good at breaking up families during the boarding process
Horrible experience at tbe check in ladie she was very racist ,she doesn't speak portuguese too and forced me to check in my carrion bag and I saw everyone with carrion bag inside anda lot of space ,she was rude unprofessional
The crew was great. There was a big guy sitting next to me who was hanging over my side of the armrest the entire time. Maybe some information about "Be considerate of your neighbors, this is tight space, be kind". The breakfast sandwich was not appealing at all.
Not bad but they lost 2 of my bags when I got to Florence
Couldn’t get boarding passes online, delayed an hour, and smallest amount of space on board I’ve ever encountered for such a long flight.
I’m an Iberia fan but this time They dropped the ball. I went from ALC to MAD to LHR. Boarding in ALC was by group… to get you in a bus. Then we sat for almost an hour when most people had connections. When we landed in Madrid we did so and they put us in another bus almost like if they wanted to make people lose their connection. We made ours by the skin of our teeth but our luggage did not. And on top of this we had to listen to the pilot bragging about Iberia being punctual. To be true we made it on time to LHR but we are Still waiting for our luggage
I have to compare it to the AA flight back home. AA was a little better. Perhaps it was that American English is my native tongue. My seat on AA was newer and more comfortable. The food was a little better. The entertainment was much better, more movies worth watching. The sound was lousy on both.
Excellent liked business class except wife’s luggage was lost on 10 Hours connecting flight to Miami and we were priority! 1:20 layover! Expect better From American Airlines partner
Service was good , communication and emails were in Spanish though I booked in English , end up figuring it out but also flight was partnered with air maroc and I had to call them to check on not Iberea doesn’t make sense
In general, I've had excellent experiences with Iberia flights and will continue to use them. In this last flight there were two things that didn't go right. I didn't get the kosher meal I had pre-requested when I had checked in on-line. Things worked out OK as we ended up eating the fish and vegetarian choices, which were really good. The other issue was that some movies for me and my wife started fine but after 8-12 minutes the content just switched to something else. The flight attendant reset our entertainment systems, but the problem persisted. We ended up choosing other movies/TV shows that did work fine.
Awful. They didn't even show concern that her connecting flight( Dallas to Mardrid) was gone/missing. I don't understand how that is even possible. Rudest answer from one of the crew was that American Airlines sold the tickets to somebody else. My daughter was not in the list.
Really like the idea experience on this airline I will use again
The pilot was professional and very good. The flight crew, very young and often looked flustered and overwhelmed. The seats were among the most uncomfortable in the air. The boarding somewhat chaotic. The price reasonable. Overall it was an average budget airline experience...although Iberia is not a budget airline. I fear if Iberia doesn't up it's game customers like us will go elsewhere.
Flight attendants were fine, seats a bit hard but I use a cushion for extra support. The only issue was it was a bit too cool and I needed to ask for and received and extra blanket. I survived!!!
Very few things and/or people are excellent. It was very good.
Food choices limited & not enticing Seats quite uncomfortable & difficult to control
Definitely get premium economy on a flight this long if you can. Your legs and while body will thank you.
Boarding was disorganized. The door to one to the toilets wouldn’t lock. The plane was shockingly cramped, and clearly used for domestic flights due to the menus for items to sell domestic travelers. United should be ashamed of its small seats, tiny unclean toilets, and money grubbing stance toward services, compared to Lufthansa, Emirates, and most international carriers United is awful.
Catastrophic experience the gate selected customers were picked up to.pay 70 eur for overweight 1-2 kg. While some others were let to board without chcking their carry on bags. Unecessaey drama by Lufthansa that brings nothing just hating them by customers.
Terrible. Lost our luggage for 4 days. Did not advise passengers there was a strike in Barcelona Airport and had zero personnel on hand at airport to advise passengers on where to go to file claims. We had to fend for ourselves. No assistance at all other than an online claims submission process that we had to find out about on our own.
Lufthansa cancelled our flight from Los Angeles to Naples Italy on March 10 for scheduled flight on March 12 Very stressful experience trying to arrange alternatives. Will never fly again with Lufthansa
Service and food were excellent. Incredibly friendly and competent staff. Flight was delayed over and hour and I had to run between terminals to get my connecting flight.
Late flight Delays Poor service Poor staff Worst airline ever
Canceled flight late London to Florence. Help at airport very poor. Treated poorly. Had to sleep in the airport. Lost bags- still do not have them. Horrible. I should be reimbursed!
Boarding was orderly, pilot and flight attendants were nice, entertainment options were good, and low sodium meals were quite tasty.
Wonderful business class flight in a lovely new plane with an excellent crew
Flight delayed, connection was not at gate listed and so missed, staff were rude at Heathrow, phone tree stupid and difficult, took me 21 actual hours to reach my destination. Almost lost my hotel reservation after walking in a strange city alone after midnight because they would not put me up in a hotel at sfo or heathrow. I will never fly BA again and will tell all people and Instagram followers never to fly BA.
Check-in in SAN was long. ORD was good. Flight delayed On board crew was ok. No warmth or personality. LHrR barely made connection
Wish the food and overall service was better. They treat Business class passengers same as economy
The luggage problem I previously mentioned was actually this flight
They had us seating down for one hour just waiting on the plane
Flying with BA is always a good experience—even in economy class. It is better if in business and first class. Timely, breeze through security and timely connections
The issue was not with BA it was with the link yoiu sent fopr booking the flight