$227 Find Cheap Flights from Europe to California

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Low seasonJanuary
High seasonJuly
Cheapest flight$227
Best time to beat the crowds with an average 9% drop in price.
Most popular time to fly with an average 20% increase in price.
Flight from Paris Charles de Gaulle Airport to Los Angeles

Flights from Europe to California: the best tips from KAYAK users

Insights shared by verified travelers who flew the route from Europe to California 
MichelleFlew with Aer LingusDUB-SFOMay 2025
Make sure you arrive well ahead of the flight. We were lucky that security lines were pretty short but they could be very long and you do US customs and security in Dublin.
PatrickFlew with LufthansaMUC-LAXMay 2025
Arrive early. There are a lot of flights and a lot of steps before getting to your gate.
IanFlew with IberiaBCN-LAXJan 2025
Be aware that checked in bags are EUR70 per bag. You can board the plane via stairs either at the front or back. I thought the experience was ok a 13 hour flight
Verified travelerFlew with SWISSZRH-LAXDec 2024
Don't pack too much, as the carry-on back size is smaller than most other airlines.
AlastairFlew with British AirwaysLHR-SFOFeb 2025
Make sure your free checked luggage is for outward and return flights.
Verified travelerFlew with British AirwaysLHR-SANSep 2024
Flight overall is good. Service is very good. Bring yourself some snacks, in case the food isn’t up to your taste.
Verified travelerFlew with SWISSZRH-LAXSep 2024
Have Swiss app it keeps you updated pretty instantly of any delays or gate changes
MeganFlew with IberiaLHR-LAXSep 2024
Pack light and know you can always get stuff when you land.
NinaFlew with Aer LingusDUB-SFONov 2024
Make sure you include extra time to pass through US Border Control if you’re flying to the US! Also Aer Lingus bag drop closes 75 mins before flight departure for long haul so bear that in mind!
Verified travelerFlew with United AirlinesLHR-SFOSep 2024
Download all your music. Add shows and movies to your queue. Bring short so you can relax. Bring long charger cords.
PGFlew with CondorFRA-LAXOct 2024
Make sure you have plenty of time to get through the Frankfurt Airport if you are flying internationally.
MajFlew with Scandinavian AirlinesCPH-LAXSep 2024
Bring snacks! Other than the 2x international meals, everything else is for purchase.
SunnyFlew with Turkish AirlinesIST-SFONov 2024
Turkish lounge is so good, however receptionists are anything but receptive: they were inattentive and rude x 4 Airport is very large for a tight international transfer if inbound flight is 30 min late
Verified travelerFlew with United AirlinesAMS-SFOJul 2024
Fly either Business class or Premium Plus. Realize Business is unaffordable for most but Premium Plus is worth the extra fee.
SimonFlew with British AirwaysLHR-LAXJun 2024
If flying business class I’d research which cabin your aircraft operates. BA have some old business class on the 380 and new business class on the 777. (And 350). The new cabin is so much better. But the food just isn’t as good as it used to be
AmirFlew with TAP AIR PORTUGALLIS-SFOJul 2024
For any flight that's part of a Multi-City flight plan, don't miss it. Otherwise, all your remaining flights on that plan will be terminated.
KaraFlew with Scandinavian AirlinesCPH-LAXAug 2024
Make sure you request food restrictions! Otherwise they will make you purchase if you are unable to eat their free meal
GzimFlew with LufthansaMUC-SANAug 2024
Buy your own food, choose seating where you have your own row or someone your flying with.
AmrFlew with United AirlinesMUC-LAXAug 2024
Boarding takes long time and traveling from T2 is far away from T1
Verified travelerFlew with American AirlinesLHR-SFOMar 2024
Heathrow is vast, allow plenty of time to drop bags and go through security. At San Francisco the immigration takes a bit of time and we had to wait around 1.5hrs, bare this in mind when booking car rental. The is a shuttle train from the airport to the car rental area which is very slick and efficient.
HenryFlew with United AirlinesFRA-SFOApr 2024
connection took much longer than I expected; need 20 minutes between taking a shuttle bus and pass through custom before you get on your flight
Ana-MariaFlew with IberiaLHR-SFOMar 2024
In London triple check your flight they have multiple leaving for the same destination once - it is easy to get them confused
Verified travelerFlew with British AirwaysMAD-SFOMay 2024
Terminal 4 in Madrid is not well signed to tell where passengers need to go after each step. Planes are far from the Terminal. Baggage check in is slow.
Verified travelerFlew with Air Tahiti NuiCDG-LAXJan 2024
Fly this airline. Get to LAX early. 4 hrs. Its jyst enough time.

FAQs for booking flights from Europe to California

  • How does KAYAK find such low prices on flights from Europe to California?

    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 Europe to California.

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

    KAYAK’s flight Price Forecast tool uses historical data to determine whether the price for a flight from Europe to California 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 Europe to California?

    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 from Europe to California with an airline and back with another airline.

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

    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 from Europe to California up to 3 days before/after your preferred dates. You can then pick the flights that suit you best.

  • Which is the cheapest airport to fly into in California?

    Prices will differ depending on the departure airport, but generally, the cheapest airport to fly to in California is Los Angeles Airport (LAX), with an average flight price of $562.

  • What is the cheapest day to fly to California?

    Based on KAYAK data, the cheapest day to fly to California is Tuesday where round-trip tickets can be as cheap as $792. On the other hand, the most expensive day to fly is Saturday, where round-trip prices are $944 on average.

  • What is the cheapest time of day to fly to California?

    The cheapest time of day to fly to California is generally at night, when round-trip flights cost $650 on average. Morning departures are around 8% cheaper than evening flights, on average. The most expensive time of day to fly to California is generally in the afternoon, which is peak travel time and where the average cost of a ticket is $866.

  • What is the cheapest flight to California?

    The cheapest ticket to California from Europe found in the last 72 hours was to Los Angeles, at $206 round-trip. The most popular route is Amsterdam (AMS) to Los Angeles (LAX) and the cheapest round-trip airline ticket found on this route in the last 72 hours was $206.

  • What is the cheapest month to fly from Europe to California?

    The cheapest month for flights from Europe to California is February, when tickets cost $627 (return) on average. On the other hand, the most expensive months are July and August, when the average cost of round-trip tickets is $1,063 and $971 respectively.

  • How far in advance should I book a flight from Europe to California?

    To get a below average price on the flight from Europe to California, you should book around 2 weeks before departure. For the absolute cheapest price, our data suggests you should book 19 weeks before departure.

  • How long is the flight to California?

    An average nonstop flight from Europe to California takes 13h 22m, covering a distance of 5720 miles. The shortest route is London Heathrow Airport (LHR) to San Francisco (SFO) with an average flight time of 10h 20m.

  • What are the most popular destinations in California?

    Based on KAYAK flight searches, the most popular destination is Los Angeles (42% of total searches to California). The next most popular destinations are San Francisco (22%) and Las Vegas (11%). Searches for flights to Ontario (8%), to Burbank (6%) and to Long Beach (5%) are also popular.

Top 5 airlines serving from Europe to California

 
Need help choosing which airline to fly with from Europe to California? 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
DeltaOverall score based on 7963 reviews
7.3Food
8.5Crew
7.9Entertainment
8.2Boarding
7.9Comfort
Airline reviews

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.

2.0 MediocreAnonymous, Jun 2025BOS - LAX
Read more Delta reviews

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.

I love the free WiFi!! Crew was nice. Bathroom was decent. First time flying delta in a long time and I enjoyed it. Will definitely look into booking with Delta more but I think Delta is a little more expensive than the other airlines.

Seats are much much more comfortable than United, which is what I usually fly

If I pay extra for "comfort+" I expect leg room where I can stretch my legs. I was seated with an attendant's seat blocking my feet. Knee space was fine but my feet had less room than the non-"comfort+" seats. Also, don't go cheap on food when you have flights of 3+ hours. It's insulting.

Only one side of the heafphone jack work. Crew was friendly and helpful.

Great. Flight departed early and arrived early. Deplaning and baggage claim ww were quick.

Boarding was mayhem. Late boarding by 15 minutes because of lack of staff (missing 1 flight attendant. We had to wait for an arrival of another plane before we could board). Flight was a little rough, but cannot blame on airlines.

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

Airbus plane, nice and polite staff, entertainment even as it was a short flight.

United out of SFO is having issues with catering so none of our meals were loaded on the plane and no offer of compensation for our tickets purchased was offered.

Its good expeince but in enternteiment please be like you tube the music i like or movie

I needed to make changes to my flights. When I called customer service, they assisted me with care professionalism.

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

Wonderful and fast TSA checkpoint. The line was fast and our gate was close by

The gate was too far away for the connecting flight

Generally good. The aisles have gotten narrower which can slow down boarding. Flight crew was great! Healthier complimentary snacks would be appreciated. Due to earthquake in San Francisco we had to circle in air space for a bit but then had a smooth landing. I laud the flight crew for their patience ;)

Loved the staff, boarding and drink options! Wish the comfort of the seat could have been better nevertheless

Honestly, I haven’t flown American in years, probably due to the pandemic and my being unable to travel for certain periods in the last two years, but it was a good experience to dig out or obtain a new American Airlines account after many years of traveling for business with American in the past.

Long 5 hour and 45 min flight and only one drink service and cookie snack

One bottle of water and a package of cookies for comfort plus. We had to literally beg a flight attendant for an extra bottle of water later in the flight due to feeling dehydrated.

Flight boarded from Gate 39 at OGG, the farthest gate in the terminal. There were no Hawaiian themed amenities for the flight. The first class service was mediocre at best; I received not special welcome or recognition as an executive platinum member of American Advantage program. The flight attendants were more concerned with their cell phones than saying "thank you" to the passengers as we disembarked. Fortunately, the flight arrived at LAX a few minutes early.

Bigger seats. Board back to front! Disembark front to back!

Extraordinary service in business class, and very good breakfast and snacks. A really lovely flight.

This flight didn’t happen because AA agents didn’t let us board the flight

Plane was pretty clean, staff was friendly and helpful, flight left about on time arrived early. Took a long time to board and get off the plane - carry on items didn't have enough room so people had to move all around to find places.

The service and food needs to improve to catch up with other international flights

I was very grateful for Lufthansa's role in organizing mobility support. The touchscreen on my seat was faulty: slow, stained (I couldn't get it clean), and glitchy. This made selecting movies extremely time consuming, and twice I had to start all over from the beginning.

Beautifully maintained airplane, good food, professional crew, top-notch communication. I highly recommend Lufthansa for intercontinental flights between the United States and Europe.

Lufthansa is my favorite airline and have flown oversea with them for the past 25 years: i always found them so professional and incredibly efficient from checking in to arrival. I also love their Munich or Frankfurt airports.

The United flight was excellent! The flight attendants were attentive and nice, and the food was very good! And the glasses are larger than on Lufthansa flights! I don’t want to have to ask for 15 glasses of water because their glasses are ridiculously small!

The food not that great. Did not like the fact that we could not purchase upgrade at the airport

We paid for business class, and my seat did not work at all. Each time I wanted to adjust the position, an attendant had to come to physically force the seat into its new position. They tried to fix it by fiddling with the electronics (military reset, for example), to no avail. Also, the food was just mediocre. We were at the end of a serving section, so they ran out of several choices. (This was on the flight from Los Angeles to Munich.)

The crew was the best I’ve ever encountered. Business class was spacious, immaculate, and very modern.

The plane was very clean. The bathroom was clean as well. The land crew were very polite and informative and helpful. They informed me that there is a long way and challenging to go from international terminal to national terminal and in addition to getting my suitcases and going through customs and dropping them again for my second leg of trip which was San Francisco to Los Angeles . I have left knee issue and had a recent fall with aching muscles all over, the land crew suggested wheelchair help for me, God bless her. If I did not have help, I could not make it to my last terminal. Thank you UNITED AIRLINE!

I like the service and the efficiency. I am lactose intolerant and the lactose intolerant meal in business class was not astounding. Also, the business class fully reclining seats are not that comfortable.

Food was great but they didn't clear my meal tray for 3 hours. You'd think they could check though the cabin now and then.

Better synchronizing the boarding processes. The audio announcements, the personnel and the digital signage were not saying the same thing. All confusion.

The first class seats were unusable, mine at the end of the flight, my husband's in the middle of the flight, and the one next to me was unusable either, they had to move the person to another seat.

Last minute gate change. Didn’t put our TSA global on our trip even though we asked multiple times to confirm. Did not help with food when could not eat what was served.

Our luggage didn’t arrive with us, that puts a damper on the whole trip.

The cabin was bit colder than I like but the crew members looked after us very well. They did even offer hot water bottle and hot chocolate. I cannot rate the crew enough excellent is not good enough. They really were wonderful.

Boarding is always a challenge as folks in al groups crowd around for no reason, but crew handled it well. I once again applaud the LHR ground baggage staff as they got our bags from a flight at Terminal 5A to a flight in Terminal 5C within 40 minutes...amazing!

This flight from London to Chicago was actually on an AA airline. I did book through BA but the flight was AA. Great flight, hectic in Chicago, I wouldn't choose to fly through Chicago again, but that's not the airlines fault. The flight itself was great.

Push back is not working when I complaint a male staff he told me that most of the seats are like that so we can’t do anything

Seats were way too small. I got claustrophobic waiting for trash from meal to be taken away. I couldn't move to even close my tray until trash was taken.

Was 3 hrs delayed and my poor friend I met in Barcelona was waiting at airport for 3 hrs. Dallas airport was awful

Book cheap flights from Europe to California

Recent round-trip flight deals

8/30Sat
nonstopNorse Atlantic Airways
11h 25mCDG-LAX
9/14Sun
nonstopNorse Atlantic Airways
10h 35mLAX-CDG
$381
9/2Tue
1 stopSWISS
34h 35mCDG-LAX
9/12Fri
1 stopSWISS
18h 30mLAX-CDG
$383
10/30Thu
1 stopLufthansa
14h 30mLHR-LAX
11/4Tue
nonstopLufthansa
10h 30mLAX-LHR
$475
9/23Tue
1 stopLufthansa
16h 20mLHR-LAX
10/19Sun
1 stopLufthansa
15h 35mLAX-LHR
$481
9/5Fri
1 stopUnited Airlines
15h 50mLHR-LAX
9/12Fri
1 stopUnited Airlines
18h 35mLAX-LHR
$486
9/15Mon
2 stopsUnited Airlines
16h 58mLHR-SFO
9/26Fri
nonstopUnited Airlines
10h 20mSFO-LHR
$501
9/3Wed
1 stopBritish Airways
15h 40mMUC-LAX
9/13Sat
1 stopBritish Airways
18h 10mLAX-MUC
$503
10/8Wed
nonstopBritish Airways
11h 10mLHR-SFO
11/5Wed
nonstopBritish Airways
10h 35mSFO-LHR
$517
9/30Tue
1 stopAmerican Airlines
16h 20mLHR-LAX
10/21Tue
nonstopAmerican Airlines
10h 25mLAX-LHR
$521
11/16Sun
1 stopAmerican Airlines
15h 30mCDG-LAX
11/23Sun
1 stopAmerican Airlines
18h 10mLAX-CDG
$526

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8/28Thu
nonstopNorse Atlantic Airways
11h 25mCDG-LAX
$227
8/28Thu
nonstopNorse Atlantic Airways
11h 25mCDG-LAX
$229
8/26Tue
nonstopBritish Airways
11h 20mLHR-LAX
$535
9/10Wed
nonstopBritish Airways
11h 05mLHR-SFO
$538
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1 stopLufthansa
15h 25mLHR-SFO
$540
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nonstopLufthansa
11h 10mLHR-LAX
$552
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2 stopsAmerican Airlines
18h 57mCDG-ONT
$935
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27h 09mCDG-ONT
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Last minute flights from Europe to California

Last minute flight, train and bus deals

6/21Sat
nonstopNorse Atlantic Airways
11h 25mCDG-LAX
7/7Mon
nonstopNorse Atlantic Airways
10h 35mLAX-CDG
$398
6/18Wed
nonstopNorse Atlantic Airways
11h 25mCDG-LAX
7/17Thu
nonstopNorse Atlantic Airways
10h 35mLAX-CDG
$418
6/21Sat
multi-stopLufthansa
14h 30mLHR-LAX
7/10Thu
multi-stopLufthansa
14h 55mLAX-LHR
$561
6/21Sat
multi-stopUnited Airlines
15h 25mLHR-LAX
6/28Sat
multi-stopUnited Airlines
14h 40mLAX-LHR
$564
6/21Sat
nonstopLufthansa
11h 05mLHR-LAX
7/6Sun
nonstopLufthansa
10h 25mLAX-LHR
$595
6/21Sat
multi-stopBritish Airways
23h 18mFRA-SFO
7/8Tue
multi-stopBritish Airways
23h 47mSFO-FRA
$600
6/21Sat
multi-stopUnited Airlines
16h 25mLHR-SFO
7/5Sat
nonstopUnited Airlines
10h 25mSFO-LHR
$603
6/21Sat
multi-stopAmerican Airlines
19h 32mMUC-LAX
6/30Mon
multi-stopAmerican Airlines
18h 10mLAX-MUC
$604
6/21Sat
multi-stopBritish Airways
23h 18mFRA-SFO
7/8Tue
multi-stopBritish Airways
15h 45mSFO-FRA
$611
6/21Sat
nonstopAmerican Airlines
11h 15mLHR-LAX
7/9Wed
nonstopAmerican Airlines
10h 35mLAX-LHR
$614

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Everything you need to know for your flight to California

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