$62 Find Cheap Flights from San Francisco to Illinois

This is the cheapest one-way flight price found by a KAYAK user in the last 72 hours by searching for a flight from San Francisco to Illinois departing on 1/8. 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
1 adult, Economy, 0 bags

KAYAK searches hundreds of travel sites at once for deals on flights to Illinois

 
These are the airlines KAYAK users have selected most often from within our search results in flight searches from San Francisco to Illinois.
These are the airlines KAYAK users have selected most often from within our search results in flight searches from San Francisco to Illinois.
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Cheap Flights from San Francisco to Illinois

Cheapest round-trip prices found by our users on KAYAK in the last 72 hours
Chicago
Chicago1 stop$286
Moline
Moline1 stop$289
Peoria
Peoria1 stop$289
Bloomington
Bloomington1 stop$379
Champaign
Champaign1 stop$452
Springfield
Springfield1 stop$555
St. Louis
St. Louis1 stop$130
Decatur
Decatur1 stop$336
Paducah
Paducah1 stop$527
Chicago
Chicago1 stop$286
Moline
Moline1 stop$289
Peoria
Peoria1 stop$289
Bloomington
Bloomington1 stop$379
Champaign
Champaign1 stop$452
Springfield
Springfield1 stop$555
St. Louis
St. Louis1 stop$130
Decatur
Decatur1 stop$336
Paducah
Paducah1 stop$527

Book Cheap San Francisco to Illinois Plane Tickets

 
Here are some of the best deals found on KAYAK recently from the most popular airlines for round-trip flights from San Francisco to Illinois that are departing in the next months. While these flights were available on KAYAK in the last 72 hours, prices and availability are subject to change and deals may expire.
Discover the best prices for you by selecting your travel dates on KAYAK.

Recent round-trip flight deals from San Francisco to Illinois

Tue, Dec 9 - Wed, Dec 10
Frontier Logo
6:30 am - 10:14 amSFO-STL
25h 44m1 stop
Frontier Logo
7:43 pm - 7:53 amSTL-SFO
14h 10m1 stop
$130Frontier
Find Deal
Sun, Dec 7 - Thu, Dec 11
Frontier Logo
11:33 pm - 9:52 amSFO-STL
8h 19m1 stop
Frontier Logo
1:16 pm - 8:03 pmSTL-SFO
8h 47m1 stop
$134Frontier
Find Deal
Thu, Dec 4 - Tue, Dec 9
American Airlines Logo
6:00 am - 12:24 pmSFO-ORD
4h 24mnonstop
American Airlines Logo
8:35 am - 11:26 amORD-SFO
4h 51mnonstop
$287American Airlines
Find Deal
Sun, Apr 19 - Tue, May 5
United Airlines Logo
12:45 am - 10:08 amSFO-MLI
7h 23m1 stop
United Airlines Logo
5:42 pm - 10:57 pmMLI-SFO
7h 15m1 stop
$289United Airlines
Find Deal
Wed, Jan 21 - Sun, Jan 25
American Airlines Logo
12:17 am - 10:39 amSFO-PIA
8h 22m1 stop
American Airlines Logo
5:16 pm - 10:34 pmPIA-SFO
7h 18m1 stop
$289American Airlines
Find Deal
Mon, Mar 16 - Wed, Mar 18
Alaska Airlines Logo
8:42 am - 11:56 pmSFO-ORD
13h 14m1 stop
Alaska Airlines Logo
6:50 pm - 10:31 amORD-SFO
17h 41m1 stop
$289Alaska Airlines
Find Deal
Tue, Dec 16 - Sun, Dec 21
Alaska Airlines Logo
7:00 am - 11:50 pmSFO-ORD
14h 50m1 stop
Alaska Airlines Logo
8:58 pm - 8:15 amORD-SFO
13h 17m1 stop
$290Alaska Airlines
Find Deal
Sat, Dec 6 - Wed, Dec 10
Southwest Logo
10:10 am - 4:10 pmSFO-MDW
4h 00mnonstop
Southwest Logo
8:15 am - 11:00 amMDW-SFO
4h 45mnonstop
$292Southwest
Find Deal
Fri, Feb 20 - Tue, Feb 24
Southwest Logo
5:55 am - 11:55 amSFO-MDW
4h 00mnonstop
Southwest Logo
10:05 am - 5:05 pmMDW-SFO
9h 00m1 stop
$293Southwest
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Tue, Jan 27 - Sun, Feb 1
United Airlines Logo
11:56 pm - 9:05 amSFO-DEC
7h 09m1 stop
United Airlines Logo
9:49 am - 3:35 pmDEC-SFO
7h 46m1 stop
$336United Airlines
Find Deal
Booking Insights

KAYAK's insights & trends for San Francisco to Illinois flights

Get data-powered insights and trends into flights from San Francisco to Illinois to help you find the cheapest flights, the best time to fly and much more.

What is the cheapest San Francisco to Illinois flight route?

Data is based on round-trip flight searches on KAYAK over the past month.

The cheapest ticket to Illinois from San Francisco found in the last 72 hours was to Chicago, at $287 round-trip. The most popular route is from San Francisco (SFO) to Chicago O'Hare Intl Airport (ORD), and the cheapest round-trip airline ticket found on this route in the last 72 hours was $287.

Can I save money by flying with a layover from San Francisco to Illinois?

The average round-trip price for all non-stop flights, flights with one layover, and flights with two layovers for the route found by users searching on KAYAK in the last 2 weeks.

No, with an average price for the route of $335, prices are generally cheapest when you fly direct.

What is the cheapest month to fly from San Francisco to Illinois?

To calculate monthly average prices, KAYAK takes all prices for each month over the last year for round-trip flights from San Francisco to Illinois, removes the top 0.1% to account for outliers, and then takes the median of all values for each month.

The cheapest month for flights from San Francisco to Illinois is February, when tickets cost $282 (return) on average. On the other hand, the most expensive months are November and December, when the average cost of round-trip tickets is $471 and $443 respectively.

What’s the cheapest day of the week to fly from San Francisco to Illinois?

The average price of all round-trip flights from San Francisco to Illinois clicked on KAYAK for each day over the last 12 months.

If your flying dates are flexible, you should consider flying to Illinois on a Wednesday, as we generally find the cheapest rates on that day for this route. On the other hand, Sunday is the most expensive day to fly from San Francisco to Illinois. For your return ticket, we recommend flying on a Thursday and avoiding Sundays for the best deals.

How far in advance should I book a flight from San Francisco to Illinois?

To calculate weekly average prices, KAYAK takes all prices for each week before departure over the last year for round-trip flights from San Francisco to Illinois, removes the top 0.1% to account for outliers, and then takes the average of all the values for each week.

To get a below average price on the flight from San Francisco to Illinois, you should book around 4 weeks before departure, which saves you about 46% compared to booking last minute. For the absolute cheapest price, our data suggests you should book 10 weeks before departure.

Good to know

Low seasonJanuary
Cheapest flight$63
Best time to beat the crowds with an average 13% drop in price.
Most popular time to fly with an average 11% increase in price.
Flight from San Francisco to St. Louis

FAQs - booking Illinois flights

  • How does KAYAK find such low prices on flights from San Francisco 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 San Francisco to Illinois.

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

    KAYAK’s flight Price Forecast tool uses historical data to determine whether the price for a flight from San Francisco 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 San Francisco 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 San Francisco 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 San Francisco 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 San Francisco to Illinois up to 3 days before/after your preferred dates. You can then pick the flights that suit you best.

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

    The cheapest time of day to fly to Illinois is generally in the evening, when round-trip flights cost $412 on average. Morning departures are around 7% more expensive 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 $467.

Top tips for finding cheap flights to Illinois

  • Looking for a cheap flight? 25% of our users found tickets from San Francisco to the following destinations at these prices or less: Chicago $197 one-way - $397 round-trip

Reviews of the top 5 airlines serving from San Francisco to Illinois

 
See real verified KAYAK customer reviews for airlines flying from San Francisco to Illinois. Airline scores are aggregated from all reviews left by passengers on KAYAK after flying with an airline. KAYAK doesn’t show reviews that are older than 5 years. Learn how KAYAK collects reviews.
Need help choosing which airline to fly with from San Francisco 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.
8.0
Alaska AirlinesOverall score based on 11281 reviews
8.5Crew
7.8Comfort
7.0Entertainment
8.1Boarding
7.1Food
Airline reviews

Flight was delayed 14 hours! We missed an entire day of our vacation and had to pay for hotel that we didn’t use

2.0 MediocreAnonymous, Oct 2025SFO - OGG
Read more Alaska Airlines reviews

Flight was delayed 14 hours! We missed an entire day of our vacation and had to pay for hotel that we didn’t use

Could not check in online. Called airline twice, thinking Hawaiian Airlines could check me in during phone call. NO. In 2nd phone call, Customer Service explained that due to “transition period” of Hawaiian Airlines/Alaska Airlines merger, I could only check in at the airport. In addition, flight to Kahului was late at arrival gate; I made connection to Lihue but my bag did not, so I had to return to Lihue airport a couple hours after my arrival to retrieve the bag.

I still in San Francisco😡the flight has delay and lm not sure l can back to Seattle or not😡lm here from 7.30pm and still waiting😡 l never will use of Kayak.

On time boarding, take off and landing. Will fly again with Alaska Airlines.

Flight was smooth, pleasant passengers and crew. Enjoyed the experience

Flight attendant was awful, I felt second hand embarrassment with every one of her interactions with people onboard. She was so incredibly rude every chance she got

Great flight - efficient and cheerful team on board, at SFO gate. Also, PAE (Paine Field, Everett, WA) is a great little airport to fly out or in to!

I was sitting towards back of plane and the flight attendants I thought spoke unusually loud for an evening flight. They chatted and chatted all night long and it seemed odd to me that they didn’t try to lower their voices. It is annoying as a passenger to hear all their conversations.

Had to pay $8 for internet wasnt cool, no tv’s, had to use phone to watch movies, no food choices seemed available unless u ordered in advance maybe I'm wrong about that but seemed that way, no snacks were served. Seemed a very bare bones flight. But it was on time and safe so that was good

We were singled out, greeted and helped with check-in at the busy airport. They offered to take our bags there and gave no fuss when we said they were carry-on. With United just last week I had to put up a fight just to get onto the flight with my one authorized carry-on.

It was rough. The staff was unprofessional, the choice of on board drinks terrible, it was cramped in space at every airport, they always ran out of overhead bin space so they pressured people to check bags for free or we couldn’t leave on the plane— so I did check my bag to help, and they nearly lost my bag. My bag did not arrive on the luggage belt, another man on my flight and I had to waste our time going to the baggage office to search for our bags. I would only fly southwest again if it was my last choice. Also, my flights were consistently delayed over and over again— at one point they straight up told us we were waiting for the pilot to arrive.

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.

Excellent. Would encourage Southwest to keep current boarding procedures with free style seating. Makes for a fantastic experience

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.

Worst experience I had on Southwest. Still better than most, but the seating was barely tolerable.

It was okay. The plane was delayed from earlier in the day, but they kept updating the departure time, sometimes later, sometimes earlier. That was stressful. Once we finally got on and took off, it was fine. I was supposed to have a connection in Chicago to Los Angeles, and the time for so late I was rebooked to arrive in LA 3 hours late. The departure time to Chicago later became early enough to have taken my original connection and arrive earlier but that wasn't an option.

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?

My experience on this United Airlines flight was highly uncomfortable, primarily due to two issues: Cabin Temperature: The temperature on the Boeing 737 MAX 8 was unacceptably high, feeling consistently around 80 degrees throughout the flight. This made sleeping impossible and significantly detracted from the experience. Seating Arrangement: Being stuck in a middle seat for a six-and-a-half-hour overnight flight compounded the discomfort. Moving forward, I will always purchase a seat assignment to avoid this situation.

Premium Plus is a really good idea for longer flights

Same as last comment. Food sucks. Quality. Not surprising most people have no clue about nourishment Clearly

We were in business class. the angled seats in that class do not have a real window view & the placement of the controls are bad. But we knew that. But the food options were mediocre. The taste was fine, but the size was for a child. It’s just really feels like United is skimping on everything. Even when we were in the Polaris lounge they did not have diet sodas. They said they were out no Coke zero no Diet Coke, etc. I do not think the portion of nuts they serve on the plane could get any smaller. Really a minimal service and offer for what you’re paying for in business.

We had to deboard 2 times due to maintenance issues. They changed the plane, and then we got deviated to LAX due to maibtenance issues on the other plane, had to sleep at LAX and los a full day.

From the first moment you interact with United Airlines, you can expect nothing less but extreme frustration. The baggage handler at the bag drop seems completely unbothered by the presence of customers waiting in line. No help was extended to load the baggage whatsoever. And if any of your bags is overweight by 0.01 pound they will make you re-distribute everything in your suitcase just to play power trip. When it was time to board no help was extended to customers to locate their seats. Moreover. It was a chaotic mess at the gate when it was unclear who should board first and everyone just bunched up, trying to get on the plane. I am sure the crew was doing their best to perform their jobs while being paid their wages however it shouldn’t be that hard to smile once or twice when you’re in the business if serving customers. It is a shame for the United States of America to have a flagship carrier of such low caliber. Our flight was also delayed by about an hour and a half due to further delays prior to our inbound flight. Being someone who has travelled for both business and leisure in Asia, Europe, and South America I have never experienced such poor quality of service.

The pilots were late and it made us 1 hour late. The meat was tough and bok choy was also tough.

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

I enjoyed the extra leg room compared to other airlines. The first stewards made my daughter’s birthday special by giving her an extra snack. Then the last one coming home from Chicago to Appleton made our night really enjoyable Thanks for making our trip enjoyable

It was good..clean, comfy seat. Friendly warm welcoming crew. Was able to check my cabin luggage at the gate which I was able to pickup in a decent time from baggage claim. The app gave all updates from delays to baggage claim info. Overall smooth flight.

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 typical flight. We had a delay which seems to be the normality now. And we had no in flight service due to conditions.

After we landed we sat on the tarmac for 1.5 hours waiting to get to our gate. Ridiculous.

Terrible. Flight delayed for more than 8 hours with only a $12 meal voucher provided for the inconvenience. The airplane did not have breaks on arrival yet they still made us go through the motions and board on time knowing we could not take off then sit for 40+ minutes before having to get of the time. A complete waste of my time. I cannot believe they can stay business with these shenanigans. I’ll avoid this company like the plague moving forward as the lack of accountability is disgraceful.

This was the best 2 flights I have had with American out of SGF. Great crew both flights.

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.

Excellent - explanations were clear staff was nice and flight was comfortable

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.

The single worst check in experience I could imagine. I’ll never do any business with Frontier or any affiliated company

Too many extra fees, uncomfortable, little leg room. Will not recommend this airline.

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.

Severe turbulence. Captain never came on to reassure passengers after things settled down.

We were delayed three times ,and that destroyed my plans, and reservations

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 crew was delayed because they came on another flight that was delayed due to weather 10pm flight left at 1.30 am The airline made no effort to align alternate crew

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.

Everything you need to know for your flight from San Francisco to Illinois

Information on your arrival and departure airports