$89 Find Cheap Flights from San Francisco Bay Area to Iowa

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Good to know

Low seasonJanuary
Cheapest flight$89
Best time to beat the crowds but there is an average 2% increase in price.
Most popular time to fly and prices are also 3% lower on average.
Flight from San Francisco to Des Moines

FAQs for booking flights from San Francisco Bay Area to Iowa

  • How does KAYAK find such low prices on flights from San Francisco Bay Area to Iowa?

    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 San Francisco Bay Area to Iowa.

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

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

    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 San Francisco Bay Area to Iowa 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 San Francisco Bay Area to Iowa?

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

  • How many airports are there in Iowa?

    There are 8 airports in Iowa. The busiest airport is Des Moines Airport (DSM), with 63% of all flights arriving there.

  • What is the cheapest day to fly to Iowa?

    Based on KAYAK data, the cheapest day to fly to Iowa is Wednesday where round-trip tickets can be as cheap as $397. On the other hand, the most expensive day to fly is Sunday, where round-trip prices are $607 on average.

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

    The cheapest time of day to fly to Iowa is generally in the afternoon, when round-trip flights cost $389 on average. Morning departures are around 5% more expensive than evening flights, on average. The most expensive time of day to fly to Iowa is generally in the morning, which is peak travel time and where the average cost of a ticket is $511.

  • What is the cheapest month to fly from San Francisco Bay Area to Iowa?

    The cheapest month for flights from San Francisco Bay Area to Iowa is January, when tickets cost $374 (return) on average. On the other hand, the most expensive months are November and March, when the average cost of round-trip tickets is $560 and $496 respectively.

  • How far in advance should I book a flight from San Francisco Bay Area to Iowa?

    To get a below average price on the flight from San Francisco Bay Area to Iowa, you should book around 4 weeks before departure, which saves you about 33% compared to booking last minute. For the absolute cheapest price, our data suggests you should book 12 weeks before departure.

  • How long is the flight to Iowa?

    An average nonstop flight from San Francisco Bay Area to Iowa takes 12h 29m, covering a distance of 1587 miles. The shortest route is Oakland (OAK) to Sioux City (SUX) with an average flight time of 0h 47m.

  • What are the most popular destinations in Iowa?

    Based on KAYAK flight searches, the most popular destination is Cedar Rapids (41% of total searches to Iowa). The next most popular destinations are Omaha (24%) and Des Moines (20%). Searches for flights to Moline (9%), to La Crosse (3%) and to Sioux City (2%) are also popular.

Reviews of the top 5 airlines serving from San Francisco Bay Area to Iowa

 
Need help choosing which airline to fly with from San Francisco Bay Area to Iowa? 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 4252 reviews
8.6Crew
8.0Comfort
7.0Food
8.1Boarding
7.5Entertainment
Airline reviews

The boarding and seat assignment system no longer works for me, but I know it is being replaced. Otherwise, I am good with the overall experience.

8.0 ExcellentRussell, Dec 2025
SAN - OAK
Read more Southwest reviews

The boarding and seat assignment system no longer works for me, but I know it is being replaced. Otherwise, I am good with the overall experience.

The lead steward kept singing about "San Francisco" and hotel California---more annoying than humorous....needs work. Flight was smooth and on time.

San Diego airport is brand new, spacious, airy and very smooth checkin at SW baggage drop.

Crew could have been friendlier, maybe I'm spoiled by SW crews. In flight wifi was good. Would be nice to have more food offerings on a 4 plus hour flight

Ever since Southwest starting charging for bags, passengers don't want to pay to check their bags, so the gate agents have to beg people to check their roller bags now because there's "not enough space". This was a terrible business move by Southwest.

Sacrament staff are always polite and helpful. Airport is easy to maneuver and boarding is straightforward.

As always, the entire Southwest experience was wonderful, from online booking to flight to baggage retrieval. Very grateful.

The weather could have been better. There was a 40 minute ATC delay in SFO because of marine fog and a micro cell storm delayed landing and take-off at Nashville. The gate was changed 5 minutes from boarding from gate B3 to gate C23 at Nashville airport.

The cabin was quiet for the redeye flight. The area was clean. The staff was great. The 787 Max was in good condition. Drawbacks were that the seat widths were tight for some passengers. The seat padding was at best average and for a long flight uncomfortable.

Delayed flight. Nicest crew member was a SW pilot flying seated next to me who kindly move to seat the final passenger. Flight extra delayed. My cup of refreshment of ginger ale was so packed with ice it was literally 2 sips.

No lunch on a x-country flight scheduled for 10:50 am departure, arrived 5+ hrs later. That requires a black box label before you pay for the tickets. Worst, when I checked in online, it's specifically said that lunch was served on his flight for economy Plus passengers.

Our flight from SFO to MSP was right on time on 11/15/2025. No delays. As we approached MSP at about 8 pm, we circled in the air until 8:40 pm so I don't call that efficient for MSP. I think the captain should announce the delay and why. (as if we all don't know that we are just circling around the area, slowing down, speeding up, slowing down.) Thank you. Marilyn Fischer

Staff were friendly and happy. Delta could make sure passengers that don't have the app know of changes. Without Kayak I would not have known about the change of gate or the delay. Kayak was faster to notify me.

The flight used a B767 with a very old interior from before 2014. The entertainment system did not work at all during the flight despite attempts to reset the system. It was like they flew this route just to be competitive.

Delayed flight (1hour) plus a long layover after an overnight flight with no backup plane available.

Flight delayed for two and half hours and then canceled altogether due to mechanical issues. No mechanic onsite to fix so had to send one from LAX.

My husband upgraded our seats and I don't know if it was due to the type of planet was or if they didn't upgrade our seats. We were supposed to be in I believe comfort seats and they were just as tight as any other seat- no leg room and we are very tall people but at least it wasn't extremely cold. My husband did put in a complaint about our seating because he paid extra and if we would have known that the space and the tightness would have been the same, we just would have gotten the emergency row emergency row seats that we normally get. We love Delta but both our flights coming home we're not good. Oh I forgot to mention that on our flight to Hawaii our luggage wheels got broke and we had to purse new luggage on vacation then we never had this problem so we didn't know protocol and reported it after we got home only for them to tell is we only had 24hrs to report the damage. Not sure what was going on with Delta this vacation trip.

Crew was excellent. Comfort seats not as nice as other kinds of planes.

It was a great flight and the stewards and stewardess were all kind and accommodating!! The seats were comfortable and entertainment screen excellent!

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

Older aircraft, no meal, only food was for purchase. Not impressed United.

Not pleasant trip cross country when the entertainment and WiFi system not working. No entertainment for entirety of route. Staff was rather nonchalant in that they dismissed the problem due to age of plane. It would have been nice to know this up front so I could have come prepared to read or download movies before boarding Coincidentally or not, there was a similar issue with the entertainment system on my previous flight I took on my fist leg of the trip. There are no seat TVs, so you must rely on the app when it works. United can do better. Also, what use it it to pay for boarding group 2 when half of the passengers are in the same line as you?

Premium Plus is a really good idea for longer flights

The flight attendants were great, I joked with one I can’t remember her name, a blond, really sweet. I thought it was run well very professional. This was great i survived Spirit, I know for which I speak.

I was in first class. The outlets at my seat did not work. The plane was shabby and run down. I had prepurchsed a day subscription for internet that was not redeemable. I had to repurchase the internet for my flight and then it didn’t work anyway. Quite disappointed in what was supposed to be the launch of a great vacation.

I understand stuff happens, but plane failures are likely due to lack of maintenance. Additionally, air conditioning wasn't working, no snack/drink service, no WiFi. Fortunately, the crew was communicative and light-hearted. United grabbed another plane and we were able to get to our destination.

Stuck on tarmac for two hours plus a 5.5 hour flight. Rude flight attendant. And no meals, not even for purchase!

I learned that seating towards the end of plane that a line forms for the restroom and people use your chair as a hand railing, bumping your seat consistently. I was seated in the aisle. I think that next time if I am towards the back row I would want to sit in the middle or window seat.

United sent me a mileage plus number last year but that number is invalid so I can’t use it to check into flights or collect mileage. There is human to speak about the problem, only computers who keep asking me if I am using the correct email. It’s so frustrating and I cannot resolve it.

Not a great experience. We paid for the upgrade for premium economy seats and seated ourselves in very comfortable seats. Someone came along with the same seat on their boarding pass. The aircraft had been changed and as a result we were booted out and sent further back to small uncomfortable seats. After complaining we were moved to emergency row seats, which gave us more leg room but the seats don’t recline. For people in our 70’s we found having to sit upright from California to NJ very uncomfortable. Not sure why they chose to move senior citizens instead of the two people that were allowed to take the more comfortable seats. Not happy.

Horrible. Both legs of my flight were delayed more than 6 hours. No compensation, no screens on the plane, and the plane was not clean.

The flight was smooth, the pilot kept us informed about delays and we arrived more of less on time

The flight was flawless and we even arrived between 20 and 25 minutes early!

Always seated jammed in rear of aircraft Admirals Club food at DFW terminal D was absolute worst food experience and I pay $600/year to eat this dried out junk

Mostly good. Flight was crowded but Airline personnel were very friendly & accommodating. It would be good to have savory snacks rather than just sweet Biscoff cookies.

It was a red eye flight, so no meals were provided, but it was fine with snacks. The seats felt cramped and almost too narrow.

Very crowded flight but what can you expect these days?? Crew was accommodating.

The seats in economy were appeared to be quite thin and lack sufficient cushioning to be comfortable. Perhaps it was my seating position but the plane seemed notably load.

The entertainment package was vast and the selections were very current. Keep updating it was great.

The seat was so hard my tailbone was aching The crew was kind of a b**** because I made a joke that I didn't care if they close the door I total c*** when she was trying to f****** act like she was mad at me because I said that The flight was bumpy. Sure you didnt have control over that.

Not clean and was told I would get a great seat and it was not great at all

Flight got delayed for 5 hours no good explanation was offered ;(

Horrible. I would never fly Frontier again. The booking process is tricky at best, but fraudulent in my opinion. Frontier customer service did nothing to rectify my purchase -- I ended up paying more than double what I could have gotten from other airlines and nearly triple what I thought I was buying from Frontier. Their booking practices are unfair to the consumer.

Delayed. Text notifications were slow. Not much information o what was happening. Boarding was slow and confusing. Wasn’t even offered water other flight. Had to ask. No entertainment at all. Felt like.a Greyhound bus.

When I wanted to check in 3 hours prior to boarding time, the employees mentioned “a little over an hour delay” so I waited for an hour then I went to go look for food in the terminal and most people from that flight were in the same area looking for food. Finally I decided after food to check to see if it’s anytime closer and now it’s 2 mins until boarding closes?! What are you kidding me? I didn’t receive anything via sms about boarding now nor via email or on the intercom. I luckily made it through, barely, and then there’s no room for my carry on mind you I’m in the very first row so I had to place my purse in one further row back and my carry on sections down. Not sure who pays for better seats to get your stuff placed all over the plane but that was the worst experience I’ve ever had flying with anyone.

This airline sucks. They offer low rates then charge you for everything, the app does not work well, the seats are the most uncomfortable. Maintenance issues on the flight, and you still have to sit through their credit card commercials. People are nice enough but does not make up for overall poor experience.

Cancelled flight after I arrived at airport after 75 min drive and parking. Next flight was 4 days in the future. Had to scramble and buy a much more expensive flight on another carrier.

I liked the turn-style feature at gate 209B at LAX. Very efficient process. The gate staff also made several, clearly directed announcements so I felt very informed.

The seats were awful, hard plastic covered in sheet vinyl. The airline tries to scam you into paying extra to get seat together when the flight wasn’t full. They were going to separate a family with young children but my wife who had a row to herself gave up her seat so the young mom could be with her young boys. I’m never giving this airline my money again.

It was a short flight so no food or entertainment….

Everything you need to know for your flight to Iowa

Cabin class types available on flights to San Francisco Bay Area

Cabin classes available on flights to San Francisco Bay Area. Prices are the lowest found on KAYAK over the last 7 days. Price and availability is not guaranteed.