$98 Find Cheap Flights from Iowa to Illinois - Compare and Save

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Low season

January

Cheapest flight

$98
Best time to beat the crowds with an average 8% drop in price.
Most popular time to fly with an average 1% increase in price.
Flight from Des Moines to Chicago O'Hare Airport

FAQs for booking flights from Iowa to Illinois

  • How does KAYAK find such low prices on flights from Iowa to Illinois?

    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 Iowa to Illinois.

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

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

    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 Iowa to Illinois 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 Iowa to Illinois?

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

  • Which airlines fly most frequently to Illinois?

    Iowa and Illinois are connected by different airlines. The airlines that fly that route the most regularly are United Airlines (164 flights per week), American Airlines (105 flights per week), and Air Canada (90 flights per week).

  • How many airports are there in Illinois?

    There are 12 airports in Illinois. The busiest airport is Chicago O'Hare Airport (ORD), with 93% of all flights arriving there.

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

    Prices will differ depending on the departure airport, but generally, the cheapest airport to fly to in Illinois is Chicago Midway Airport (MDW), with an average flight price of $263.

  • What is the cheapest day to fly to Illinois?

    Based on KAYAK data, the cheapest day to fly to Illinois is Thursday where round-trip tickets can be as cheap as $511. On the other hand, the most expensive day to fly is Tuesday, where round-trip prices are $698 on average.

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

    The cheapest time of day to fly to Illinois is generally in the morning, when round-trip flights cost $506 on average. Morning departures are around 35% cheaper than evening flights, on average. The most expensive time of day to fly to Illinois is generally in the afternoon, which is peak travel time and where the average cost of a ticket is $1,085.

  • What is the cheapest flight to Illinois?

    The cheapest ticket to Illinois from Iowa found in the last 5 days was to Chicago O'Hare Intl Airport, at $108 round-trip. The most popular route is Waterloo (ALO) to Chicago O'Hare Intl Airport (ORD) and the cheapest round-trip airline ticket found on this route in the last 5 days was $108.

  • What is the cheapest month to fly from Iowa to Illinois?

    The cheapest month for flights from Iowa to Illinois is January, when tickets cost $193 (return) on average. On the other hand, the most expensive months are November and March, when the average cost of round-trip tickets is $309 and $284 respectively.

  • How far in advance should I book a flight from Iowa to Illinois?

    To get a below average price on the flight from Iowa to Illinois, you should book around 4 weeks before departure, which saves you about 43% compared to booking last minute. For the absolute cheapest price, our data suggests you should book 12 weeks before departure.

  • How many cities have direct flights to Illinois?

    From Iowa, there are direct flights to Illinois from 7 cities. The city with the most direct flights is Des Moines, with 367 direct flights each week.

  • How many direct flights to Illinois are there each day?

    There are around 116 direct flights from within Iowa to Illinois every day. Most flights (53%) depart in the morning.

  • How many direct flights to Illinois are there each week?

    Each week there are around 809 direct flights from within Iowa to Illinois. The most common day for departures is Sunday, with 16% of flights taking off on this day.

  • How long is the flight to Illinois?

    An average nonstop flight from Iowa to Illinois takes 5h 12m, covering a distance of 275 miles. The shortest route is Dubuque (DBQ) to Chicago O'Hare Intl Airport (ORD) with an average flight time of 0h 50m.

  • How many long-haul flights are there to Illinois each week?

    There are not any long-haul (6-12 hour flight duration) or medium-haul (3-6 hour flight duration) flights to Illinois. Instead, there are 809 short-haul flights (up to 3 hour flight duration), with the most arriving from Des Moines.

  • What are the most popular destinations in Illinois?

    Based on KAYAK flight searches, the most popular destination is Chicago (95% of total searches to Illinois). The next most popular destination is St. Louis (5%).

Reviews of the top 4 airlines serving from Iowa to Illinois

 
Need help choosing which airline to fly with from Iowa to Illinois? 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.
7.9
SouthwestOverall score based on 4210 reviews
7.4Entertainment
8.0Comfort
7.0Food
8.1Boarding
8.6Crew
Airline reviews

The entire crew were wonderful but 1 flight attendant stood out with his sense of humor on the microphone. I told him as much as I exited the plane.

8.0 ExcellentDanielle, Oct 2026
Read more Southwest reviews

The entire crew were wonderful but 1 flight attendant stood out with his sense of humor on the microphone. I told him as much as I exited the plane.

Maybe different snack selection. To much sodium in them. I know refrigerators are not available but there has to be healthier items.

Wasn't expecting this, but, we actually ended up getting assigned to the first row of seats!!!!! The extra legroom came in handy

Flight was delayed over 3 hours. Planes were dirty. Staff indifferent. And they serve vegan pretzels as snacks.

The flight was smooth. The Southwest experience has degraded overall, but this one was okay.

The checking experience in Orlando was terrible, almost missed the flight. Too many travelers and Southwest completely understaffed.

no service at all due to turbulence. they should've at least given us snacks, there were only 10 people on the entire flight.

For the first time in a long time, the Wi-Fi actually worked the entire flight! The flight crew was amazing as usual.

Great flight. I didn't get a drink because I was asleep whole on the flight.

Love them will get a Southwest card to track my points and keep flying with them. My family and I were pleased with the services.

You could have NOT left me and my family high and dry by not completing the reservation changes because they no longer have the contract from Phoenix AZ to Moab Utah. There wasn't even a ticket agent for Contour in Phoenix to talk to. Cost my an additional $1600. to rent a vehicle to get my family to Utah. Now I'm left with trying to have someone make it right financially. I'm not optimistic..........

I’ve flown Contour on 4 different flights in the last couple weeks and every one of the flights were significantly delayed. Like over 2 hours delayed. 3 of the 4 were due to maintenance and one was weather, which is beyond their control. If this continues, I will not fly them anymore. It makes me concerned that they don’t have great maintenance practices. The planes are very old and worn out and the interiors need improvement. I do like the amount of space you have between seats for legroom. They also started charging for bags recently, which I think the did when they partnered up with American Airlines as a codeshare partner. American is also a disaster of an airline so I wish they had some agreement with Delta. I am glad they offer a major airline parternership though. That is certainly giving people more opportunities. I won’t fly Contour unless they have a direct flight to where I am going. If I have to connect then I am going to take Delta. The bus at the DFW airport to get on and off the aircraft is a pain and adds so much extra time to your travel experience. I hope this is temporary while they are building a new terminal, but I don’t know.

Short flight so no entertainment and none expected or appropriate. Everyone I dealt with was professional and helpful. A good experience.

Love it. No Frills but better than Spirit No Frills. It's like a simple luxury private plane especially if you've got five or six people on it because then you probably got your own section of the plane.

All the staff were amazing! The flight was quick, everything went smoothly, I have nothing but good things to say about this flight. Thank you Contour!

It was easy, efficient from start to finish. The flight attendant was amazing. Smooth ride. It was just perfect.

This was my first time flying with Contour and the Greenbrier Valley Airport. It both were excellent and the price couldn’t be beat!

I felt like a sardine in my seat. We all did. The plane was so small that I hit my head on the roof when I stood up from my seat. The service was good and the crew were nice.

Flight was cancelled, but they got him on an earlier delayed rescheduled one. Arrived Chicago 2 hours later than expected but long layover so it worked.

It’s the only flight connecting Marion to Chicago, I do appreciate that it was available!

The first leg of my trip the Republic Airlines aircraft was late due to a maintenance problem. Then I called United to reroute. Their reroute airline lost my bag but found it and returned it two days later. Hopefully my return trip home is better.

There was not even a single time where united airlines from lga has made to the gate straight , 1 hr if delay today

Takeoff delayed 2 hrs. Boarded on time to find we were missing part of the flight crew. Then informed that they had loaded too much fuel. Spent 1 1/2 hrs sitting there burning off the excess, which included a couple of laps around the runway until we were light enough to fly! Ridiculous!

Requested for warm or hot water because of throat pain, it was denied. The entertainment system was hung, requested the crew to turn it off, instead of turning it off they rebooted the device. It was stuck again, no one bothered to check.

Horrible on the chicago end. They change hates then there is a plane at the new gate so we can’t pull in. Then that plane has mechanical issue and needs to be pulled back to the gate but we can’t get to another new gate due the other plane being in the way. Horrible gate management which will cause many customers to miss connections.

Fantastic experience once again flying with United! There was great communication from the cockpit and one of the flight attendants went out of her way to get my two little kids some special treats which elevated our travel experience coming home.

The employees seemed impatient with their guests. It seemed like they were giving us orders, instead of easily assisting. Our flight was delayed waiting on a flight attendant. It was alright.

1 flight cancelled Had to fly out of different city Flight at new departure city was delayed 3 hours causing us to miss connecting flights. By the time we did make it to Prague our luggage did not. Had to wait day and a half for luggage to be delivered. Customer service was not good. Agents did not arrive at gate until 5-10 minutes before boarding

It was better than excellent. The staff in Mason City were great. The young woman that pushed my wheelchair did more than could be expected of her. She came from India 17 years ago. I don't remember her name.

I had requested wheelchair assistance prior to flight. The airport staff had no record of it. It was not provided at Cedar Rapids which was a small airport, so I managed on my own. At O'Hare airport the same thing happened. The staff told me they had no record of my request for a wheel chair. But they finally provided it after a delay when I insisted that I needed it.

No flight delays. No need to rebook to make connections. Enjoyed second leg of flight on Iberia.

Same the delay was not ideal and the credits to move flights was not sufficient

No food on 4.5 hour flight, wi-fi did not work. Terrible experience for a long haul flight.

The crew were diligent about ensuring that our pet dog remained in his carrier for the entire flight, as is their mandate. I wish that mandate was changed so that our poor, scared pets can be comforted during a flight, whereas service animals get to stay out and about for the whole flight. Thank you.

first leg from san diego to chicago, only had cookies for snack. 1 flavor of sparkling water chicago to washington dc had option of cookies, pretzels, or gold fish. had 2 flavors of sparkling water. 2nd flight better however the best part was there was no delays!!! Got to chicago and washington dc early. That was wonderful!!!!

Business class flight attendant was very good. But our flight was delayed two hours for a “mechanical” bathroom issue that literally took 5 minutes to fix. Our plane landed early from its previous flight but still waited for a mechanic to show up to fix an obvious minor issue for almost three hours. This caused us to miss our connecting flight. They put us up in a Days Inn that was 17 miles away from the airport that took a half hour of driving just to get to and this was at 11pm at night. Then when we finally got back on a plane after a full day delay they left our luggage back in the airport. This was an international flight, so no luggage or belongings after flying 8 hours to a different country. We will NEVER fly American Airlines again.

12 hour wait in pdx to my initial flight to Dallas to hunstville

The flight from Chicago to Orlando was delayed inordinately. My whole journey from Lansing to MCO took 9.5 hours is just annoying and frustrating. We can understand the delays may be beyond their control, but overall the journey was so much waiting until reached to MCO. This is NOT the first time for me - but at least 80% of the time in this route. I barely remember reaching places on time.

I was truly shocked at how poor this flight went. The crew was not friendly during the checking process. The asked for people to gate check and were rude about it. They didn't handle my luggage with care. When I got to my seat I noticed a large section of the ceiling vent area was, no joke, TAPED TOGETHER WITH CLEAR PACKING TAPE! To add insult to injury, the back rest button was disabled on my seat and all the seats I could see. The wifi, never connected for me, despite troubleshooting it for a while. I did everything from restarting my wifi/phone to forgetting the network and restarting the app. But that didn't stop the mandatory 2 ads from playing every single time. Even the bags took over 45 mins to arrive at the carousel. Everything about this flight was a flop and I am beginning to notice that some of these events are becoming a trend. Perhaps it's time I switch loyalty programs.

The boarding process needs to be fixed. The zone don't work, especially when there is hardly anyone in zones 3, 4,and 5, leaving the majority of the passengers backed up in the aisle, especially because passengers seated near the front are blocking passengers who are seated in the rear of the plane. It would also help if the size of carry on bags was more strictly enforced.

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