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Find cheap flights from Ottawa to California from $169

This is the cheapest one-way flight price found by a KAYAK user in the last 72 hours by searching for a flight from Ottawa to California departing on 10/23. 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
0 bags
Fri 6/7
Fri 6/14

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Best California Flight Deals

Cheapest round-trip prices found by our users on KAYAK in the last 72 hours

Los Angeles
Los Angeles1 stop$293
San Francisco
San Francisco1 stop$455
San Diego
San Diego2 stops$414
San Jose
San Jose2 stops$517
San Luis Obispo
San Luis Obispo2 stops$547

Good to know

Low season

September

High season

December

Cheapest flight

$169
Best time to beat the crowds with an average 15% drop in price.
Most popular time to fly with an average 3% increase in price.
Flight from Ottawa to Los Angeles

FAQs - booking California flights

  • Is it necessary for me to obtain a visa to fly from Ottawa to California?

    Unless you plan on flying from Ottawa to California and staying there for several months, you won’t need to secure a visa before your trip. You can stay in California for several days or even weeks without a visa. Just make sure you pack your passport or a valid NEXUS card for the trip.

  • Does Ottawa Macdonald-Cartier International Airport participate in the Verified Traveller program?

    Yes, the airport in Ottawa does take part in the Verified Traveller program. If you’ve signed up for this program, you’ll be able to make your way through security much faster than usual.

  • What are the common layovers on the way from Ottawa to California?

    There are several layover locations used on flights from Ottawa to California. Two of the airports you might find yourself in include Toronto Pearson International Airport (YYZ) and Vancouver International Airport (YVR).

  • What are the best ways to make a flight from Ottawa to California sustainable?

    If you’d like to help make your flight from Ottawa to California more sustainable, you can start by packing lightly. It’ll reduce the impact your luggage has on the weight of your plane. You should also look into flying with an airline like Air Canada that has committed to reducing its greenhouse gas emissions to net zero by 2050.

  • How does KAYAK find such low prices on flights from Ottawa 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 Ottawa to California.

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

    KAYAK’s flight Price Forecast tool uses historical data to determine whether the price for a flight to California from Ottawa 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 Ottawa 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 to California with an airline and back to Ottawa with another airline.

  • What is KAYAK's "flexible dates" feature and why should I care when looking for a flight from Ottawa 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 to California from Ottawa up to 3 days before/after your preferred dates. You can then pick the flights that suit you best.

See more FAQs

Top tips for finding cheap flights to California

  • Morning departure is around 28% cheaper than an evening flight, on average*.
  • If you would like to fly from Ottawa to California, Ottawa Macdonald-Cartier International Airport (YOW) will be the best place to start. There are a few airlines that fly from Ottawa to one of the airports in California, such as Los Angeles International Airport (LAX) or San Diego International Airport (SAN).
  • While you will be able to fly from Ottawa to California, there aren’t any direct flights between these two places. More often than not, you will only have to make one stop while you’re on your way to California from Ottawa, but there are instances when you’ll have to make two or even three stops en route to California. Ideally, you’ll want to search for an airline that can get you from Ottawa to California in just one stop, since it could significantly trim your travel time.
  • Flying from Ottawa to California will take you at least 12 hours, in most cases, and sometimes even longer than that. Because of this, you may want to consider booking a first-class ticket for your flight. Before you do, though, you should book an economy ticket and keep your eyes peeled for emails from your airline. It might be willing to extend a discount on a first-class ticket if you’re willing to wait.
  • If you want to avoid getting hit with baggage fees when you arrive at Ottawa Macdonald-Cartier International Airport, you may want to limit the amount of luggage you bring. Airlines like Air Canada will charge you about $30 to check your first bag and $50 for a second one. By only bringing only a carry-on bag, you can save money while you fly to California.
  • It’ll be important for you to head to Ottawa Macdonald-Cartier International Airport about two to three hours before your international flight to California. Once you make your way through security, you can kill extra time by heading to one of the lounges in YOW, such as the Aspire Lounge. It’s open to all passengers regardless of which airlines they’re flying.
See more tips
*Average of the lowest prices shown in KAYAK’s search results for departures within the next 30 days

Top 5 airlines serving from Ottawa to California

 
Need help choosing which airline to fly with from Ottawa 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.
7.5
WestJetOverall score based on 2945 reviews
7.7Boarding
8.2Crew
6.5Entertainment
6.5Food
7.3Comfort
Airline reviews

Too many oversized carryon baggage. If carrier reduced checked luggage fee this could be avoided. The staff were friendly and helpful, very professional.

8.0 ExcellentRoy, May 2024YQT - YWG
Read more about WestJet reviews

Too many oversized carryon baggage. If carrier reduced checked luggage fee this could be avoided. The staff were friendly and helpful, very professional.

Nice smooth flight with pleasant stewards. Slept most of the flight, they could have slowly turned on the lights to make it more pleasant. Otherwise a good trip.

Great! No food was available during the flight due to the catering service strike but snacks were given throughout the flight which was nice.

I wish that seats closer to the front of the plan were available, but when I booked the flight the seats were VERY expensive so I did not book seats at that time. The day before flying only seats at the back of the plane were available. It takes so long to board the plane and empty the plane on arrival due to SO many roller bags.

Crew was rude.didn’t even say hi or welcome to board

Good flight. No I’m seat entertainment. But my phone worked just fine on the west jet app.

Nothing special. Unacceptable wait for baggage on arriving in Calgary

Departure delay on a late night flight. Made us even later. Tired but got home.

Westjet forced me to put my carry-on baggage in check-in probably because I was assigned seat 23A (the last row seat), which had no cabin space, which is unfair. I wanted to carry on my luggage so that I don't have to wait at the airport for my luggage. Also, because there was no cabin space, I was forced to keep my laptop bag under the seat, which I didn't want to as I was carrying 2 laptops and charger. The airline should basically tell people that if you are assigned a last row seat, then you are not allowed a cabin baggage or a personal item.

Easy processing, flight time was quick and staff was professional and kind.

The check in was horrible. I stood in line for 1 hour to check in with an Air France ticket. Then I was told I had to go to Delta counter onstead to check in instead. It made no sense.

Medíocre. The food wasn't good (although not bad, bad) and the staff wasn't kind. I asked for n extra blanket, the steward never came back, serving us roughly.

They wanted to close counter although they did not provide the wheelchair requested which ended by going alone to transit security and lost long time and they did not want to wait .

They charge me for luggage which is was included on the ticket

Business class in the second leg - CDG-EVN was a disaster.

No bording was given for next trip on same carrier, food was very moderate.

Lost luggage, 2 bags were badly damaged and one of the bags came open.

The line at boarding was not well organized and managed

Crew was professional. Boarding has few seats . Since the plane was not full would have been nice to change seat on the internet

My seat was so uncomfortable, and the headrest was broken. Very very disappointing for the price I paid.

Should have video screens Plane audio was poor and without wired connection hard to understand crew. Should serve more than just cups of water and pretzels on six hour flight. Did not see crew rest of flight. Fix charging sockets to retain charging blocks.

My bag was lost with my medicine and I am very inconvenienced. I don’t know what happened, however I want you to do a better job on getting people’s bag back

Generally good but there wasn’t any staff available when my luggage didn’t appear at baggage claim in Fresno. It took about half an hour to locate a staff member to open up the locked room where it was being kept.

Do not like the feeling of being in the basic economy. Everyone should feel good no matter what.

Our original business class flight was cancelled so we not only downgraded but we were also spread out across the plane not sitting together in separate middle seats. My poor kids were scared and couldn’t see me on the flight and the crew wasn’t sensitive to the situation and what the airlines did to us. Very dissatisfied with United airlines.

The WiFi didn’t work and the seats are too close together. Very uncomfortable.

Two flights,both poor. No entertainment. Cramped and uncomfortable seats, little space, the rest was OK. Staff were acceptable good.

So so. Terrible aircraft choice for that leg of the flight.

Our seat tv didn’t work All the rest was perfect

delay several times and wait extra long to board. no entertainment service because there are problem for some rows. always encounter some delays for the last flight of the day.

Once again my complaint is how close the seats are together. Also, the bathrooms were not very clean by the second half of the flight.

Excellent in flight service, perhaps the best we've ever had. Business class feels tired and needs improvement to compete with other airlines. The food looked good but tasted terrible. Check in was quick, the flight arrived early and our luggage was on our flight with us.

Terrible quality wifi and they charge a lot for it. They nickel and dime you for everything.

Well you cancelled our direct flight to Austin from Toronto granted you got us on another flight but sent us to Denver then onto Austin delaying our arrival time in Austin by 7 hrs I was flying with 3 other people none of us were happy with our Air Canada experience

Of our SIX flights in my travel group, five were delayed, and all (except possibly one) were just company screwups. One traveler had her CARRY ON baggage put on another flight because Air Canada could not properly do "weight and Balance". Bags missing for a day. Another traveler never made it. Then, (humor here) the flagship airline of the socialist country has NOTHING FOR FREE on board. Expect to pay for pretzels, folks. How's that socialism working out for ya, aye? I might book air Canada in the future if I have a meeting that I REALLY want to MISS!

I don’t know if there were any snacks served on the 5 hour flight. I might have been napping when the attendants came around. But I usually wake up when they do.

Food offerings need to be more plentiful and beverages need to be more healthy.

First My Flight was Delayed for Over 3HRS, I missed My Older Sister's Funeral, My Car Rentals I Missed it, Had to take Uber from the Airport and then to Rentals Next Day

Nothing at all ! Everything was fantastic from start to finish 👏

As usual with Air Canada, being on schedule would be nice. Tv kept shutting off and having to reset it by staff every time. Irritating.

Touchscreens do not work. WiFi did not work. Food is possibly the worst on any European airline. Drinks came by only four times on a cross-Atlantic. The plane was two hours late because—it was announced—Lufthansa didn't have enough large aircraft in their fleet to accommodate an on-time flight.

It was freezing in the airplane. Everyone was wearing everything they had with them. The crew acknowledged it was cold, but did nothing about it

The flight attendants were superb and the service was outstanding. Some passengers with small children were very rude and inconsiderate, kids were constantly crying and some were running around the aisle unsupervised.

Terrible. There was a rattling noise the whole flight. The internet didn't work after I paid. Boarding is very disorganized.

Horrible flight attendant in back of economy that screamed at me, have already reported to United. Horrible food - for Gluten free, why would you assume the person is vegetarian? I was served some kind of horrible curry bean paste and multiple cold rolls and soggy vegetables with no seasoning... um no!

The crew member put her luggage and boxes behind my seat so I was able to recline while the passenger in front of me did for 8 hours. My knees were forced against the seat for hours :(. Dude sitting next to me hasn't showered in weeks so I almost threw up.

Sorry my last review for prg to fra was for this flight. My prg to fra flight was fine but my second flight back to Washington DC was with a slow awful crew who wouldn’t come in a timely manner to take trash and take trash before serving coffee tea and was shoving other people’s bottles of water on me when we were not traveling together

Lufthansa was amazing. Definitely upgrade your seat if you can swing it - they take very good care of their passengers. Customs in DC is nothing short of a nightmare though. Stood in line waiting to go back through security for 30 minutes, had to RUN through and across two terminals to make my connection and only had 5 minutes to spare. Terrible. Very very poor coordination by the airport staff and CBP.

I was ver pleased with the service all the way through

I always try to book flights that don’t charge for baggage. Yet I was charged $75 for this flight.

Book cheap flights from Ottawa to California

Recent round-trip flight deals

6/17Mon
1 stopWestJet
10h 44mYOW-LAX
6/22Sat
1 stopWestJet
9h 49mLAX-YOW
$293
6/17Mon
2 stopsWestJet
15h 05mYOW-LAX
6/22Sat
1 stopWestJet
9h 49mLAX-YOW
$296
6/8Sat
1 stopPorter Airlines
8h 36mYOW-LAX
6/22Sat
1 stopPorter Airlines
7h 28mLAX-YOW
$297
5/24Fri
1 stopPorter Airlines
8h 06mYOW-LAX
5/26Sun
1 stopPorter Airlines
7h 28mLAX-YOW
$301
5/29Wed
1 stopAir Canada
8h 20mYOW-LAX
6/10Mon
1 stopAir Canada
7h 12mLAX-YOW
$312
9/19Thu
1 stopAir Canada
8h 19mYOW-LAX
9/24Tue
1 stopAir Canada
7h 45mLAX-YOW
$322
5/29Wed
2 stops
12h 24mYOW-LAX
6/10Mon
1 stop
7h 28mLAX-YOW
$324
9/17Tue
2 stopsUnited Airlines
10h 28mYOW-LAX
9/22Sun
1 stopUnited Airlines
8h 08mLAX-YOW
$327
6/21Fri
2 stops
15h 05mYOW-LAX
6/24Mon
1 stop
7h 28mLAX-YOW
$354
8/24Sat
1 stopUnited Airlines
12h 01mYOW-LAX
8/29Thu
1 stopUnited Airlines
12h 38mLAX-YOW
$402

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Recent one-way flight deals

10/23Wed
2 stopsWestJet
12h 32mYOW-LAX
$169
10/23Wed
1 stopPorter Airlines
8h 05mYOW-LAX
$179
5/22Wed
1 stopAir Canada
8h 20mYOW-LAX
$181
5/23Thu
1 stopAir Canada
10h 16mYOW-LAX
$187
6/4Tue
3 stops
27h 20mYOW-SFO
$218
7/10Wed
3 stops
20h 07mYOW-LAX
$224
5/13Mon
2 stopsUnited Airlines
18h 29mYOW-SAN
$234
6/25Tue
2 stopsUnited Airlines
16h 29mYOW-LAX
$239
7/9Tue
2 stopsDelta
14h 55mYOW-SNA
$499
7/8Mon
2 stopsDelta
17h 28mYOW-SNA
$604

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Last minute flights from Ottawa to California

Last minute flight, train and bus deals

5/11Sat
multi-stopPorter Airlines
8h 06mYOW-LAX
10/4Fri
multi-stopPorter Airlines
7h 27mLAX-YOW
$311
5/11Sat
multi-stopPorter Airlines
8h 06mYOW-LAX
10/4Fri
multi-stopPorter Airlines
14h 45mLAX-YOW
$327
5/11Sat
multi-stopWestJet
27h 10mYOW-LAX
10/4Fri
multi-stopWestJet
24h 41mLAX-YOW
$379
5/11Sat
multi-stopPorter Airlines
8h 02mYOW-SFO
5/16Thu
multi-stopPorter Airlines
7h 35mSFO-YOW
$404
5/12Sun
multi-stop
9h 11mYOW-SAN
5/16Thu
multi-stop
11h 17mSAN-YOW
$455
5/11Sat
multi-stop
8h 02mYOW-SFO
5/16Thu
multi-stop
30h 43mSFO-YOW
$529
5/11Sat
multi-stopUnited Airlines
9h 11mYOW-SFO
5/15Wed
multi-stopUnited Airlines
18h 23mSFO-YOW
$552
5/13Mon
multi-stopUnited Airlines
16h 17mYOW-SAN
5/16Thu
multi-stopUnited Airlines
11h 22mSAN-YOW
$588
5/13Mon
multi-stop
25h 47mYOW-SAN
5/16Thu
multi-stop
24h 16mSAN-YOW
$590
5/11Sat
multi-stopWestJet
49h 39mYOW-SFO
5/16Thu
multi-stopWestJet
30h 34mSFO-YOW
$740

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Ottawa - California Flights

Departure:

Ottawa (YOW)Canada

Return flight deals:

California - Ottawa

Cabin classes: