Find cheap flights from San Francisco Bay Area to Iowa - Compare and Save

1 adult
1 adult, Economy, 0 bags

Save 25% or more on flights. Compare deals from all over the web.

Never overpay with our price tracking tools.

Filter searches by price, airline and more to find your best flights.

Useful Info

Good to know

Low season

January
Best time to beat the crowds with an average 11% drop in price.
Most popular time to fly with an average 2% increase in price.

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 7 airports in Iowa. The busiest airport is Des Moines Airport (DSM), with 62% of all flights arriving there.

  • 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 $269 (return) on average. On the other hand, the most expensive months are February and March, when the average cost of round-trip tickets is $450 and $400 respectively.

  • How long is the flight to Iowa?

    An average nonstop flight from San Francisco Bay Area to Iowa takes 9h 59m, 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 Omaha (58% of total searches to Iowa). The next most popular destinations are Des Moines (18%) and Cedar Rapids (14%). Searches for flights to Moline (9%), to Waterloo (1%) and to Dubuque (1%) 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 4214 reviews
8.0Comfort
7.0Food
8.1Boarding
7.5Entertainment
8.6Crew
Airline reviews

Flight boarded 2.5 hours late (my second southwest flight of the day with late departure), the gate agent was grumpy and unhelpful. Said she was "tired so we aren't going to follow normal boarding order". No complaints about the actual flight crew.

2.0 MediocreBrittney, Oct 2026
Read more Southwest reviews

Flight boarded 2.5 hours late (my second southwest flight of the day with late departure), the gate agent was grumpy and unhelpful. Said she was "tired so we aren't going to follow normal boarding order". No complaints about the actual flight crew.

I liked how it boarded fast. I do not like how the seats are just too narrow, and I’m not a big person.

Despite paying for an ‘upgraded’ seat in row 1, I had to put my luggage in the middle of the plane. Snacks were bleh and seat was small and uncomfortable and I am not large. Attendants were fine but not super helpful. Plane just seemed outdated.

Southwest has been a nightmare. Delayed flights, missed connections, systems down. Never again am I flying southwest.

had to check bag at gate when there was still overhead bin space. As usual the WIFI didn't really work.

The Southwest airline was ok. A big thank you to Kayak team (David), who worked with me on Sunday afternoon to rebook my travel from Burbank, CA, to CVG. My original flight on Sunday was delayed, so I had to cancel Sunday flight and rebook my travel to Monday. Could not have done it without help from David from Kayak team. Ante Soda GE Aerospace

Seated at front bulkhead for a smidge extra leg room away from home and on flight back home. Away crew was very proactive about assuring our carryons had space close behind us (because no seat in front of us our personal items had to be in a small bin overhead). They actively required passengers place overhead luggage on its side so more items could fit in bins. Home crew made no such efforts. I had to struggle back rows to get overhead bags upon landing, no crew help then either, and some disgruntled passengers as I and others retrieved our bags. There was a system that worked pretty well. The home bound crew just didn't feel like working.

Red eye from San Diego. Temperature of the cabin was way too warm and the air duct flowed very little air.

I think Southwest is the number one airline that anyone can fly I have flown for the first time Frontier and what a joke and their customer service United was a very strange experience I'm only sticking to Southwest from here on out for sure

Love Southwest! Always a good trip with a happy crew who goes out of their way to be kind and fun.

Had to deplane 2 x due to problems with plane. Delayed over 6 hours ans was given a $12 food credit which barely oaud for anything and limited to wear incoukd redeem.

more room in seats, larger snacks, more comms with delays

Gate agent and flight attendants were efficient, but more stern than warm.

The only issue is that the plane was HOT. This was not the case on my first flight so not sure why, but thankfully I had a portable fan with me. Everything else was great!

Seemingly unnecessary delays were compounded by a lack of communication from the flight crew which turned a four hour delay into an overly stressful experience.

I think the crew makes way too many announcements that are: 1) hard to hear in some cases and 2) repetitive. This detracts from entertainment and concentration if working or reading.

Seats were old and very uncomfortable. Coach seating is way too tight

WiFi was a major problem and if it does not work on a 4 hour flight then that lowers the overall experience

I was impressed with how quickly the baggage transfers were made.

The Airline Attendant found us in flight and moved us to seats in the front of economy due to the short time we would have to make our connecting flight. We really appreciated it.

Delayed - leaving, delayed getting to the gate at destination. What should have been a very easy flight and experience was not.

Better management of the boarding process. Is there any way you could forward all the window seats first? That's the Way Reno Air used to do it, and they had the fastest boarding in the industry!

Wifi is very frustrating - could not connect and therefore unable to work on the trip

Entertainment was great. Seats were good. They did not have my pre-ordered hot food product available but did comp me something cold in place of the item.

Santa Barbara is a super small and easy airport. Breezed through rental car return, breezed through Security, ordered a coffee and muffin and to my gate in less than 30 minutes. Maybe because it was a small airport we got the oldest plane. Hardly any overhead space and absolutely zero internet. Its NFL Sunday man! That hurt.

A long delay. Don't travel late in the day.

The seat was comfortable. There was a lot of turbulence. If it weren't for that,it would have been okay.

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

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.

No food service almost missed because of first flight delays

Multiple delays and made us miss the connecting flight and lost our bags

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.

I was able to enlist on standby for an earlier flight, and eventually made it (last row). However, the experience was poor and felt unfair. On the standby list, I was ranked #2 (#1 had been cleared a seat). The person ranked as #3, who was also in the queue alongside me was given a seat much earlier - with group 4 boarding (a seat within the first 2 rows after business class). When inquired about why I was skipped-over on the priority list, the gate agent first paused (likely cuz she couldn't explain) - and then gave me the standard expectation that if a space opens up, she'll give me the seat. Despite my priority ranking being higher, I was unduly held-back, and could have missed the plane - unfairly giving advantage to someone else. Luckily one seat opened up; but given the unfair assignment of standby seat by gate-agent, this was a subpar boarding experience.

The airline was small and the seats were not comfortable to sit in for that length of 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 by groups is pointless. The first two groups worked fine, but almost Noone boarded in goups three thru five leaving the vast majority boarding when group six was called. It defeated the purpose of spreading out the crowd.

I blame kayak for my last trip to dca. Kayak cancelled my direct flight and put on a one stop flight and made lost whole day from my vacation and had not even refunded my ticket.

delayed multiple times. no resolution on anything from AA customer service. was put on hold in chat to talk to manager. was 6th in line to talk to manager for more than TWELVE HOURS - from sometime around 9AM until well after I had gone to bed that evening. no explanation, no attempt to make it right. just a five hour delay because of repeated maintenance claims

Was the most uncomfortable I ever had in the air. Felt like I was trapped in the seat legs cramped and was just horrible. The flight to DSM was a lot better. Even being on a smaller plane was better. Staff are outstanding. No complaints about the people.

It was exactly as I expected, on time, smooth flight, courteous staff.

The seats are tiny and they don’t recline. The planes are dirty and very small. You have to pay for carry on and even the personal item that you’re allowed is smaller than with other airlines. Flights are usually delayed and there’s no screens or any amenities or entertainment.

I really didn't like anything. Paid for my checked luggage online ($79) and then was told that I would have to paid another $79 for my carry on. Was not allowed to enter the terminal until 3 hours before my flight and when I finally was allowed to check my bag and enter, my flight was delayed 3 times. When I finally landed, we were all instructed to "run off the plane" as they had to do a quick turn around to Las Vegas. Me and several of my flying companions will never fly Frontier again.

I paid for the upgraded bundle. Was worth it! Great experience round trip!

It was awful ....my first time flying on it and I will NEVER fly it again ....everything about it was terrible .....most especially the flight attendants

They didn’t offer a water, even after I asked

Remind customers of the need to have passport or new ID for boarding.

The flight never took off and we spent 7 hours at the airport

It was ok. It was expensive to check 2 bags ($75.00 per bag), and then it took a long time to wait for shuttle to take us from one terminal to the terminal where the plane was taking off at LAX. And all of this for a flight where we had to pay for any food or drink that was not water.

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.

More options for your flight to Iowa

Complete your trip to Iowa with a hotel stay or car rental