ORD - SBA

$179 Find Cheap Flights from Chicago to Santa Barbara

This is the cheapest one-way flight price found by a KAYAK user in the last 72 hours by searching for a flight from Chicago to Santa Barbara departing on 11/17. Fares are subject to change and may not be available on all flights or dates of travel. Click the price to replicate the search for this deal.
1 adult
1 adult, Economy

KAYAK searches hundreds of travel sites at once for deals on flights to Santa Barbara

 
These are the airlines KAYAK users have selected most often from within our search results in flight searches from Chicago to Santa Barbara, as well as popular online travel agencies
These are the airlines KAYAK users have selected most often from within our search results in flight searches from Chicago to Santa Barbara, as well as popular online travel agencies
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Flight Deals

Cheap Flights from Chicago to Santa Barbara (ORD-SBA)

 
Here are some of the best deals found on KAYAK recently from the most popular airlines for round-trip flights from Chicago to Santa Barbara that are departing in the next months. While these flights were available on KAYAK in the last 72 hours, prices and availability are subject to change and deals may expire.
Discover the best prices for you by selecting your travel dates on KAYAK.

Recent round-trip flight deals from Chicago to Santa Barbara

Tue, Nov 4 - Wed, Nov 12
American Airlines Logo
11:00 am - 6:09 pmORD-SBA
9h 09m1 stop
American Airlines Logo
1:20 pm - 9:04 pmSBA-ORD
5h 44m1 stop
$249American Airlines
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Wed, Dec 24 - Tue, Dec 30
American Airlines Logo
2:50 pm - 10:13 pmORD-SBA
9h 23m2 stops
American Airlines Logo
1:20 pm - 12:16 amSBA-ORD
8h 56m1 stop
$254American Airlines
Find Deal
Tue, Nov 4 - Wed, Nov 12
Delta Logo
7:37 am - 4:11 pmORD-SBA
10h 34m2 stops
Delta Logo
5:40 am - 4:52 pmSBA-ORD
9h 12m2 stops
$261Delta
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Tue, Nov 4 - Wed, Nov 12
Delta Logo
7:50 am - 11:58 amORD-SBA
6h 08m1 stop
Delta Logo
5:40 am - 4:52 pmSBA-ORD
9h 12m2 stops
$262Delta
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Mon, Oct 27 - Mon, Nov 3
Hawaiian Airlines Logo
2:05 pm - 7:52 pmORD-SBA
7h 47m1 stop
Hawaiian Airlines Logo
7:44 pm - 6:22 amSBA-ORD
8h 38m1 stop
$268Hawaiian Airlines
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Thu, Oct 23 - Tue, Oct 28
United Airlines Logo
6:15 am - 12:08 pmORD-SBA
7h 53m1 stop
United Airlines Logo
2:09 pm - 11:10 pmSBA-ORD
7h 01m1 stop
$279United Airlines
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Fri, Oct 24 - Mon, Oct 27
United Airlines Logo
4:27 pm - 10:24 pmORD-SBA
7h 57m1 stop
United Airlines Logo
6:50 pm - 5:00 amSBA-ORD
8h 10m1 stop
$281United Airlines
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Thu, Oct 23 - Wed, Oct 29
Hawaiian Airlines Logo
6:00 am - 6:41 pmORD-SBA
14h 41m1 stop
Hawaiian Airlines Logo
7:44 pm - 12:24 amSBA-ORD
26h 40m1 stop
$286Hawaiian Airlines
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Tue, Nov 18 - Mon, Dec 1
Southwest Logo
1:00 pm - 9:05 pmORD-SBA
10h 05m1 stop
Southwest Logo
5:15 am - 4:15 pmSBA-ORD
9h 00m2 stops
$371Southwest
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Wed, Nov 5 - Mon, Nov 10
Southwest Logo
7:15 am - 2:20 pmORD-SBA
9h 05m1 stop
Southwest Logo
3:35 pm - 12:15 pmSBA-ORD
18h 40m2 stops
$376Southwest
Find Deal

Everything you should know

Top airlines
American Airlines
Cheapest • from $249 (round-trip)
Southwest
Best reviews • 8.0 score
Airline reviews
Airline reviews
+1
+1
Airline reviews
Airline reviews
+1
When to travel
January
Cheapest • 22% price drop
October
Most popular
Good to know
Good to know
+1
+1
Good to know
Good to know
+1
Cheapest round-trip
$249
Overall average: $413
American Airlines
Tue 11/4Wed 11/12
ORD - SBA • 1 stop
Cheapest one-way
$179
Typical prices: $572-731
Hawaiian Airlines
Mon 11/17
ORD - SBA • 1 stop
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KAYAK searches 100s of sites at once to find you the best travel deals.
We hope you love your trip to Santa Barbara!
Booking Insights

KAYAK's insights & trends for Chicago to Santa Barbara flights

Get data-powered insights and trends into flights from Chicago to Santa Barbara to help you find the cheapest flights, the best time to fly and much more.

What’s the cheapest day of the week to fly from Chicago to Santa Barbara?

The average price of all round-trip flights from Chicago O'Hare Intl Airport to Santa Barbara clicked on KAYAK for each day over the last 12 months.

If your flying dates are flexible, you should consider flying to Santa Barbara on a Monday, as we generally find the cheapest rates on that day for this route. On the other hand, Thursday is the most expensive day to fly from Chicago to Santa Barbara. For your return ticket, we recommend flying on a Saturday and avoiding Mondays for the best deals.

What is the cheapest month to fly from Chicago O'Hare Intl Airport to Santa Barbara?

To calculate monthly average prices, KAYAK takes all prices for each month over the last year for round-trip flights from Chicago O'Hare Intl Airport to Santa Barbara, removes the top 0.1% to account for outliers, and then takes the median of all values for each month.

The cheapest month for flights from Chicago O'Hare Intl Airport to Santa Barbara is January, where tickets cost $369 (return) on average. On the other hand, the most expensive months are December and April, where the average cost of round-trip tickets is $595 and $539 respectively.

Good to know

Low seasonJuly
Cheapest flight$179
Best time to beat the crowds but there is an average 7% increase in price.
Most popular time to fly with an average 9% increase in price.
Flight from Chicago to Santa Barbara

When to book flights from Chicago to Santa Barbara

Are your dates flexible? Find out the best times to travel from Chicago to Santa Barbara based on our flight data from the last year. Discover the cheapest month and even day to fly.
Estimated round-trip price
KAYAK looks at all historical flight data for each date to provide a predicted price for one-way trips or round-trips with a duration up to 40 days. While we try to provide actual minimum prices for each date, some prices are predictions and actual prices may differ.

FAQs for booking Chicago to Santa Barbara flights

  • What is the cheapest flight from Chicago O'Hare Intl Airport to Santa Barbara?

    In the last 3 days, the lowest price for a flight from Chicago O'Hare Intl Airport to Santa Barbara was $179 for a one-way ticket and $249 for a round-trip.

  • Do I need a passport to fly between Chicago and Santa Barbara?

    Even though you are not required to have a passport, keep in mind that an official ID is needed to board the airplane.

  • Which aircraft models fly most regularly from Chicago to Santa Barbara?

    The Airbus A321neo is the aircraft model that flies most regularly on the Chicago to Santa Barbara flight route.

  • Which airline alliances offer flights from Chicago to Santa Barbara?

    SkyTeam, oneworld, and Star Alliance are the airline alliances operating flights between Chicago and Santa Barbara, with oneworld being the most commonly used for this route.

  • Which is the best airline for flights from Chicago to Santa Barbara, Southwest or Delta?

    The two airlines most popular with KAYAK users for flights from Chicago to Santa Barbara are Southwest and Delta. With an average price for the route of $496 and an overall rating of 8.0, Southwest is the most popular choice. Delta is also a great choice for the route, with an average price of $378 and an overall rating of 7.9.

  • How does KAYAK find such low prices on flights from Chicago to Santa Barbara?

    KAYAK is a travel search engine. That means we look across the web to find the best prices we can find for our users. With over 2 billion flight queries processed yearly, we are able to display a variety of prices and options on flights from Chicago to Santa Barbara.

  • How does KAYAK's flight Price Forecast tool help me choose the right time to buy my flight ticket from Chicago to Santa Barbara?

    KAYAK’s flight Price Forecast tool uses historical data to determine whether the price for a flight to Santa Barbara from Chicago is likely to change within 7 days, so travelers know whether to wait or book now.

  • What is the Hacker Fare option on flights from Chicago to Santa Barbara?

    Hacker Fares allow you to combine one-way tickets in order to save you money over a traditional round-trip ticket. You could then fly to Santa Barbara with an airline and back to Chicago with another airline. Booking your flights between Chicago and SBA can sometimes prove cheaper using this method.

  • What is KAYAK's "flexible dates" feature and why should I care when looking for a flight from Chicago to Santa Barbara?

    Sometimes travel dates aren't set in stone. If your preferred travel dates have some wiggle room, flexible dates will show you all the options when flying to Santa Barbara from Chicago up to 3 days before/after your preferred dates. You can then pick the flights that suit you best.

Reviews of the top 4 airlines serving from Chicago to Santa Barbara

 
See real verified KAYAK customer reviews for airlines flying from Chicago to Santa Barbara. Airline scores are aggregated from all reviews left by passengers on KAYAK after flying with an airline. KAYAK doesn’t show reviews that are older than 5 years. Learn how KAYAK collects reviews.
Need help choosing which airline to fly with from Chicago to Santa Barbara? KAYAK airline reviews give an overall score for each airline based on loads of factors, including comfort, boarding, in-flight entertainment and more, to make your decision easier. See airline scores according to verified KAYAK customer reviews.
8.0
SouthwestOverall score based on 4245 reviews
8.1Boarding
8.0Comfort
7.0Food
8.6Crew
7.5Entertainment
Airline reviews

Better and more food and drinks. Put msnbc and free speech tv on the news channel selection list.

10.0 ExcellentKevin, Jul 2025MDW - PUJ
Read more Southwest reviews

Better and more food and drinks. Put msnbc and free speech tv on the news channel selection list.

Very smooth checking in our luggage with a super pleasant SW agent. I enjoyed a fun entertaining movie.

after landing, we stay 2 hours on the taxi way before reaching the gate The airline and the crew were good though

First time traveling on Southwest since bag fees were implemented. Usual good service. Just more expensive now.

I'm not a fan of Southwest's model. I don't like the herding style of boarding.

It was a perfect flight in all aspects! Both legs!

Boarding process, crew were good. But the seats were so uncomfortable that was all I could focus on. I literally had to sit forward so that all 3 of us could fit in row. I will try to avoid Southwest in the future for any flights over 60 minutes.

Great flight, 47 passengers on a 180 seat plane. Stewardess was pleasant and cheerful.

Great experience flying Southwest. The crew was really kind and helpful, and very friendly with our toddler.

My flight to Chicago left and landed early. My return flight left two minutes late and arrived 2 minutes late. My seat selections were ideal! There were no snacks going to Chicago and no snacks on the return trip. There are no charging outlets on board.

I was uncomfortably cold on the plane. Other than that it was uneventful and therefore as enjoyable as a plane ride can be.

Food was surprisingly good but the WiFi was not great

My flight was extremely cold. I had a jacket and a cover was left in each seat. The cover was extremely thin and I have a disability, fibromyalgia and arthrithis and AC air is the worst. I closed my vent and my husbands vent and it still was frigid. I asked the attendant if I could get another cover and she quickly almost dismissively and totally unconcerned stating, (I quote) (one per chair) and walked off so quickly that I didn't get a chance to explain to her that I literally have adisability. I didnt want to make a seen so I set on that flight for over 5 hours in pain, joints locking up and extremely uncomfortable. When my fibromyalgia flares up my joints not only ache but they will lock up also and it takes me days to get back to my regular self even though I take medication for it. I felt like it would not have hurt anyone at all for her to just give me an extra cover because I'm sure they have all types of medical issues in people that fly every day.

Not a "Delta" issue, but a JFK issue: We booked a connecting flight with 3 1/2 hours between to clearn immigration and customs. Our inbound flight (BCN to JFK) was on the taxiway 45 minutes which ate into our layover time. Immigtration was insanely quick with the CBP MPC app; however, clearing TSA (again, after we were ALREADY cleared in Spain on the inbound international flight) took over 95 minutes. This left us with 10 minutes before boarding the connecting flight (JFK to SAN) to walk to the far end of Terminal 4 and try to find food. We didn't find any food that could promise to serve us in under 10 minutes so we boarded the Delta flight after coming off a plance and an 8-hour flight knowing that we wouldn't be served any food on the next 5 1/2 hour flight. I feel like Delta needs to put pressure on the JFK TSA to open more screening stations (by our count, we saw only 5 scanners open and a line of - as we said - over 90 minutes. The insult is that we WERE ALREADY SCREENED through TSA, but as you come off one flight into the USA, you have to go through the whole process again. It seems like if you have a connecting flight, there should be a way to pass through immigration and customs without needing to return through TSA.

There are 4 flights in consecutive gates with about the same departure time. Two flights were boarding at the same time. One was delayed or boarding would be happening at the same time. I am not sure what Delta and LAX need to do to have a better layout at the end of Terminal 2

5 hours of delay that could've been much shorter if Delta had taken the 1 hour delay they imposed on the flight before boarding to run any of the plane checks required for flight to find the hydraulic issue that required nearly 3 hours to fix. $24 of meal credit buys a sandwich and a soft drink. Poor communication within the terminal about what gate we'd be re-boarding from and when we'd be re-boarding.

The entertainment and wifi mostly didn't work on this flight.

Terrible entertainment system - kept freezing and audio kept cutting out. Snacks were mediocre at best for a 5 hour flight.

I am still upset that my bag was lost on a recent trip to Rome ; we were inconvenienced and out €150 Euros ; delta has refused to reimburse us

This had nothing to do with Delta… The flights were on time and flawless. The service was excellent. We purchased seats in (aisle/middle) comfort plus since this was a cross country flight. Unfortunately, the woman seated at the window was 300+ pounds and, as might be expected, covered up about a third of the middle seat also. there was absolutely nothing that Delta could have done about that… I just don’t know what the answer should be. If you purchase a seat, you should should be able to use the entire seat and not just the portion that someone else is not sitting/oozing in. Disappointing…there should be something that could be done….I'm just not sure what solution could be.

Once we got in the air the pilot made up some of the time of the delay. So that was really nice.

Excellent flight. Boarding was efficient and departure was on time. Smooth flight with on time arrival. Deplaning was also efficient.

It was delayed instead of departing at 9:20pm, we departed at 11pm… putting us in Columbus after 2am! It was awful. Had I known about the delay, I could have spent some time in the United Lounge… I was starving because I started my journey in Budapest… so I was exhausted and hungry. Plus I had to make new arrangements to be picked up at the airport in Columbus, instead of midnight it was 2:30 am after getting luggage and out of airport. Not feasible. I would have just stayed in Chicago for the night and gotten a morning flight.

It was great, I’m very grateful for the pilots and crew flight attendants for everything.

Evidently, my seat had the only broken TV. I couldn’t plug it in, get it to come on, or watch anything, and of course, no one could fix it while we were on the plane. The service was good and the boarding was quick

Great experience…left a bit behind schedule but made up fir that in the air and landed 10 minutes early 😁

I was charged for my daughters bag when I am supposed to receive two free checked bags with my United Explorer card.

The schedule to Moline changed 5 times. The gate changed 6 times. That is a pathetic way to run an airline. No wonder that no one in our company flies on United Express to or from Moline. Changes happen most of the time. I learned my lesson on this trip…never again!

Flight was great. Efficient boarding. Short flight. Early arrival. Friendly flight crew. The entertainment system did not work well. Could not access it until the aircraft reached 10K feet or more. Lots of glitches.

A bit rush for transit. Food and entertainment are not available

Delayed flight that lead to a missed connection and a 5-hour trip became a 12-hour flight 🙄

3 hour weather delay followed by 1 hour (and counting) maintenance delay. UGH!

After we'd boarded , they canceled the flight. The crew didn't even know , we just all received text messages. Then after they deplaned us , AA was just like "too bad, go F your self, we sure ain't gonna help you"

After a two hour delay, my flight was CANCELLED! No pilot available. Such BS.

Amazing food, great staff, with one noticable detail missing ...but no seat entertainment in any of aircraft ...I am not a fan

I wish American Airlines would change the airline industry by loading the plane back to front instead of front to back. Planes would board so much more smoothly and quickly.

I have long legs, my foot was out in the aisle and when a flight attendant came walking by and I didn't notice, instead of saying "excuse me" or anything like that, she kicked my foot. Extremely rude

Excellent! The gate agents were kind enough to rebook me on an earlier flight saving me from a 6 hour layover. Even my luggage made it despite the fact that the connection was technically too narrow. The flight itself was very comfortable, roomy, and clean. Plenty of space for my carryon items with plugs to charge my phone. After a long international flight of 14 hours, this was an excellent way to end my travels!

Great experience. Flight boarded easily. Departed early. Smooth flight. Great arrival in DC--almost no taxing! Almost direct to gate from runway. Crew was terrific. Same cookies and beverages in main cabin. I did not use the entertainment system on this flight.

Most of the delay was due to weather which is not what was at issue here. One delay was due to a missing flashlight and in the end the flashlight was actually found on the plane. The entertainment system is very limited. Live TV options offer only a few channels that are not very appealing. Boarding and deplaning are always difficult. It just takes too much time to get on and off the plane. On the plus side, I missed my connecting flight, but was easily able to book a later flight from the app while enroute.

Everything you need to know for your flight from Chicago to Santa Barbara

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