$43 Find Cheap Flights from Santa Ana to South Lake Tahoe

This is the cheapest one-way flight price found by a KAYAK user in the last 72 hours by searching for a flight from Santa Ana to South Lake Tahoe departing on 9/16. 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.
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Flight Deals

Cheap Flights from Santa Ana to South Lake Tahoe (SNA-RNO)

 
Here are some of the best deals found on KAYAK recently from the most popular airlines for round-trip flights from Santa Ana to South Lake Tahoe 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 Santa Ana to South Lake Tahoe

Wed, Sep 10 - Wed, Sep 17
Spirit Airlines Logo
2:15 pm - 11:44 pmSNA-RNO
9h 29m1 stop
Spirit Airlines Logo
6:30 am - 1:15 pmRNO-SNA
6h 45m1 stop
$84Spirit Airlines
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Tue, Sep 16 - Wed, Sep 17
Spirit Airlines Logo
2:15 pm - 11:44 pmSNA-RNO
9h 29m1 stop
Spirit Airlines Logo
6:30 am - 1:15 pmRNO-SNA
6h 45m1 stop
$86Spirit Airlines
Find Deal
Mon, Sep 8 - Wed, Sep 10
Spirit Airlines Logo
1:00 pm - 11:44 pmSNA-RNO
10h 44m1 stop
Spirit Airlines Logo
6:30 am - 1:15 pmRNO-SNA
6h 45m1 stop
$105Spirit Airlines
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Thu, Sep 18 - Sun, Sep 28
 Logo
1:00 pm - 11:44 pmSNA-RNO
10h 44m1 stop
 Logo
11:59 am - 11:07 amRNO-SNA
23h 08m1 stop
Thu, Sep 11 - Sun, Sep 14
 Logo
1:00 pm - 6:31 pmSNA-RNO
5h 31m1 stop
 Logo
7:18 pm - 12:05 pmRNO-SNA
16h 47m1 stop
Mon, Sep 8 - Wed, Sep 10
Southwest Logo
9:20 am - 3:25 pmSNA-RNO
6h 05m2 stops
Southwest Logo
3:45 pm - 9:00 pmRNO-SNA
5h 15m1 stop
$166Southwest
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Mon, Sep 8 - Wed, Sep 10
Southwest Logo
3:40 pm - 11:05 pmSNA-RNO
7h 25m2 stops
Southwest Logo
7:45 am - 1:50 pmRNO-SNA
6h 05m2 stops
$171Southwest
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Thu, Sep 11 - Sun, Sep 14
Frontier Logo
3:29 pm - 10:59 amSNA-RNO
19h 30m2 stops
Frontier Logo
7:18 pm - 12:15 pmRNO-SNA
16h 57m1 stop
$197Frontier
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Thu, Nov 13 - Sun, Nov 23
Delta Logo
7:05 pm - 11:32 pmSNA-RNO
4h 27m1 stop
Delta Logo
1:30 pm - 6:13 pmRNO-SNA
4h 43m1 stop
$200Delta
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Thu, Sep 18 - Sun, Sep 28
Frontier Logo
7:16 pm - 6:31 pmSNA-RNO
23h 15m1 stop
Frontier Logo
11:59 am - 12:15 pmRNO-SNA
24h 16m2 stops
$215Frontier
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Good to know

Low seasonJanuary
Cheapest flight$43
Best time to beat the crowds with an average 1% drop in price.
Most popular time to fly and prices are also 0% lower on average.
Flight from John Wayne (Santa Ana) to Reno

When to book flights from Santa Ana to South Lake Tahoe

Are your dates flexible? Find out the best times to travel from Santa Ana to South Lake Tahoe based on our flight data from the last year. Discover the cheapest month and even day to fly.
Estimated round-trip price

FAQs for booking flights from John Wayne (Santa Ana) to South Lake Tahoe

  • Which airports will I be using when flying from Santa Ana to South Lake Tahoe?

    When flying out of Santa Ana you’ll be using Santa Ana J. Wayne/Orange Cnty. South Lake Tahoe does not have its own airport so you’ll be flying into nearby Reno airport, which is 41.1 mi away.

  • How long does a flight from Santa Ana to South Lake Tahoe take?

    There are no direct flights covering the 416 miles separating Santa Ana and South Lake Tahoe but indirect flights take around 3h 25m.

  • What’s the cheapest day of the week to fly between Santa Ana and South Lake Tahoe?

    Consider leaving on a Wednesday and avoid Thursdays if you are looking for the best rates. For your return to Santa Ana, you’ll find the best rates on Wednesdays and the most expensive ones on Fridays.

  • How does KAYAK find such low prices on flights from John Wayne (Santa Ana) to South Lake Tahoe?

    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 John Wayne (Santa Ana) to South Lake Tahoe.

  • How does KAYAK's flight Price Forecast tool help me choose the right time to buy my flight ticket from John Wayne (Santa Ana) to South Lake Tahoe?

    KAYAK’s flight Price Forecast tool uses historical data to determine whether the price for a flight to South Lake Tahoe from John Wayne (Santa Ana) 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 John Wayne (Santa Ana) to South Lake Tahoe?

    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 South Lake Tahoe with an airline and back to John Wayne (Santa Ana) with another airline.

  • What is KAYAK's "flexible dates" feature and why should I care when looking for a flight from John Wayne (Santa Ana) to South Lake Tahoe?

    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 South Lake Tahoe from John Wayne (Santa Ana) up to 3 days before/after your preferred dates. You can then pick the flights that suit you best.

  • Which airlines provide the cheapest flights from Santa Ana to South Lake Tahoe?

    In the last 72 hours, the cheapest one-way ticket between Santa Ana and South Lake Tahoe found on KAYAK was with Spirit Airlines for $43. Spirit Airlines offered a round-trip connection from $84 and Southwest from $166.

Top tips for finding cheap flights from Santa Ana to South Lake Tahoe

  • There is no airport in South Lake Tahoe. Instead, you’ll be flying into Reno Airport when flying between Santa Ana and South Lake Tahoe.
  • The cheapest flight from John Wayne (Santa Ana) to South Lake Tahoe was found 85 days before departure, on average.
  • Book at least 1 week before departure in order to get a below-average price.
  • High season is considered to be February, March and April. The cheapest month to fly is September.

Reviews of the top 5 airlines serving Santa Ana to South Lake Tahoe

 
Need help choosing which airline to fly with from Santa Ana to South Lake Tahoe? 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 10000 reviews
8.5Crew
7.1Food
8.1Boarding
7.8Comfort
7.0Entertainment
Airline reviews

boarding was late worst was going back LAX to SFO delayed not once ? but TWICE😡I was at the airport practically almost 5 hours of previous time , very inconvenient! i would have spend longer time with family , I was wanting to avoid TSA line? but it just got me to spend unwanted time @ d airport

6.0 GoodAnonymous, Aug 2025SFO - LAX
Read more Alaska Airlines reviews

boarding was late worst was going back LAX to SFO delayed not once ? but TWICE😡I was at the airport practically almost 5 hours of previous time , very inconvenient! i would have spend longer time with family , I was wanting to avoid TSA line? but it just got me to spend unwanted time @ d airport

Flight was delayed - we left at 11:30 pm instead of 10:30 and it was extremely inconvenient. It affected both the day of the flight and the next day

Plane boarded and left on time or very close to the stated departure. Arrived on time. Staff was subdued. Could not hear the flight attendant too well. No announcement from the pilot which is always nice. Biggest complaint absolutely no little snacks! But the important thing is we left and arrived on time and we survived.

Departing flight to San Diego was delayed. Return flight from SD to SBP was delayed. Not terrible but not ideal

Canceled flight. No communication of this prior. Rescheduled to next day. Our good seats we purchased months ago turned into last row middle. No apology, reason, nor compensation for time and $ spent.

Delayed flight both ways. Then, on the return flight, we were stuck on the tarmac for at least 30+ minutes. Idk what happened, but this was a bad experience.

Coffee or tea service would be nice for an evening flight, water or juice not good enough.

Big delay of over 7 hours on next leg of trip with Alaska. Would have been nice to have food or something

I got the last seat on the plane, in the back in the corner against the window, and I paid a competitive price for my ticket several weeks before the flight.

It was my first time flying Alaska Airlines and first time flying from Santa Rosa airport. The staff was very professional and friendly. Their instructions were clear and any question was answered satisfactorily. My seat was comfortable and the in-flight beverage service very adequate for the duration of the flight. We arrived ahead of the scheduled landing time and deplaning was simple. I look forward to flying with Alaska again.

Very smooth checking in our luggage with a super pleasant SW agent. I enjoyed a fun entertaining movie.

First time traveling on Southwest since bag fees were implemented. Usual good service. Just more expensive now.

It was a perfect flight in all aspects! Both legs!

Boarding process, crew were good. But the seats were so uncomfortable that was all I could focus on. I literally had to sit forward so that all 3 of us could fit in row. I will try to avoid Southwest in the future for any flights over 60 minutes.

Great flight, 47 passengers on a 180 seat plane. Stewardess was pleasant and cheerful.

Great experience flying Southwest. The crew was really kind and helpful, and very friendly with our toddler.

Plane late from DC to Austin 30 minutes. Crew made up much of the time enroute to San Diego.

Fine, but how to board on SW versus othrr airlines, is just lame. Goood staff though and all was solid otherwise.

Was as expected. Crowed planes. Too many carryons delaying takeoff. But the ride only took an hour and saved me a lot of time SFO is a not a great airport.

I will be flying again Southwest Airlines. Friendly crew, comfortable and affordable.

I was uncomfortably cold on the plane. Other than that it was uneventful and therefore as enjoyable as a plane ride can be.

Food was surprisingly good but the WiFi was not great

My flight was extremely cold. I had a jacket and a cover was left in each seat. The cover was extremely thin and I have a disability, fibromyalgia and arthrithis and AC air is the worst. I closed my vent and my husbands vent and it still was frigid. I asked the attendant if I could get another cover and she quickly almost dismissively and totally unconcerned stating, (I quote) (one per chair) and walked off so quickly that I didn't get a chance to explain to her that I literally have adisability. I didnt want to make a seen so I set on that flight for over 5 hours in pain, joints locking up and extremely uncomfortable. When my fibromyalgia flares up my joints not only ache but they will lock up also and it takes me days to get back to my regular self even though I take medication for it. I felt like it would not have hurt anyone at all for her to just give me an extra cover because I'm sure they have all types of medical issues in people that fly every day.

Not a "Delta" issue, but a JFK issue: We booked a connecting flight with 3 1/2 hours between to clearn immigration and customs. Our inbound flight (BCN to JFK) was on the taxiway 45 minutes which ate into our layover time. Immigtration was insanely quick with the CBP MPC app; however, clearing TSA (again, after we were ALREADY cleared in Spain on the inbound international flight) took over 95 minutes. This left us with 10 minutes before boarding the connecting flight (JFK to SAN) to walk to the far end of Terminal 4 and try to find food. We didn't find any food that could promise to serve us in under 10 minutes so we boarded the Delta flight after coming off a plance and an 8-hour flight knowing that we wouldn't be served any food on the next 5 1/2 hour flight. I feel like Delta needs to put pressure on the JFK TSA to open more screening stations (by our count, we saw only 5 scanners open and a line of - as we said - over 90 minutes. The insult is that we WERE ALREADY SCREENED through TSA, but as you come off one flight into the USA, you have to go through the whole process again. It seems like if you have a connecting flight, there should be a way to pass through immigration and customs without needing to return through TSA.

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

5 hours of delay that could've been much shorter if Delta had taken the 1 hour delay they imposed on the flight before boarding to run any of the plane checks required for flight to find the hydraulic issue that required nearly 3 hours to fix. $24 of meal credit buys a sandwich and a soft drink. Poor communication within the terminal about what gate we'd be re-boarding from and when we'd be re-boarding.

The entertainment and wifi mostly didn't work on this flight.

Terrible entertainment system - kept freezing and audio kept cutting out. Snacks were mediocre at best for a 5 hour flight.

I am still upset that my bag was lost on a recent trip to Rome ; we were inconvenienced and out €150 Euros ; delta has refused to reimburse us

This had nothing to do with Delta… The flights were on time and flawless. The service was excellent. We purchased seats in (aisle/middle) comfort plus since this was a cross country flight. Unfortunately, the woman seated at the window was 300+ pounds and, as might be expected, covered up about a third of the middle seat also. there was absolutely nothing that Delta could have done about that… I just don’t know what the answer should be. If you purchase a seat, you should should be able to use the entire seat and not just the portion that someone else is not sitting/oozing in. Disappointing…there should be something that could be done….I'm just not sure what solution could be.

Plane was crowded and even when we hit altitude, the plane was hot, not enough air flow.

1. when we went to check in, our 2 first class seats had been CANCELED and the flight was sold out. This was done without our prior knowledge. It was all we could do to restore one first class seat for my wife and I flew economy. 2, Our flight home was scheduled to leave at 10:30 pm. Due to tsunami warnings, the roads were closed and our flight status was uncertain as to whether it would leave as scheduled. It was announced that it would now leave at 11:20 pm and the roads were now open since the tsunami had come and gone. We made a mad dash to the airport and checked in. Delays were announced at 12:30 pm, 1:30 am, 2:30 am and at 3:30 am it was canceled. Since this was a flight due to natural (tsunami) causes, there was no compensation. We were told to return at 1:00 pm the next day and our baggage would be kept on the plane since the same plane was going to leave at 1:00 pm. We had to return to our hotel for the rest of the night. The same plane did not leave at 1:00 pm and our baggage was gone! All in all, it was a miserable performance by UA. Information was hard to obtain and no one knew what was going on and what was going to happen. Hundreds of passengers slept on the floor, chairs, etc. No food and no water was made available to the passengers. It was a situation where UA could care less what was going on. As a one million mile flyer, I had not experienced anything like this before and it was hugely disappointing!

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.

Boarded plane and then delayed 1.5 hours while on the plane

Horrific. They missed my connecting flight to San Diego. I didn’t get there until Monday at 9am when I had a mandatory court settlement conference scheduled at 6am since we had parties on the east coast. This caused many issues. All because United apparently forgot to hold the doors open until my flight landed that only had a 10 minute delay. This was the last flight to Southern California. So I couldn’t even rent a car to finish the trip. United cannot be trusted when traveling on specific days and times since weather didn’t have anything to do with the delays.

My flight was delayed a very short period of time but they did not hold my connecting flight to San Diego, also through United. So they closed the doors before we got off our plane. They would only have to help the door open for another five to ten minutes. So I missed a court deadline for a manditory mediation settlement conference for my client. I had to get an associate to be there in person and be on the phone with him relaying what he needs to do the entire time. The court was very upset with me and so was my client. United cannot be trusted.

We were given vouchers we couldn’t use with a 5.5 hour delay

Really good 😊 the woman at the gate entrance was a little rude checking in our carry-on but i dont think she worked for the airline, she worked for the airport at sacramento, other than that amazing.

Boarding was mayhem. Late boarding by 15 minutes because of lack of staff (missing 1 flight attendant. We had to wait for an arrival of another plane before we could board). Flight was a little rough, but cannot blame on airlines.

Great experience…left a bit behind schedule but made up fir that in the air and landed 10 minutes early 😁

Late departure by 1:45min. No explanation why. During boarding inconsistent policing of their baggage rules. Before takeoff and lamdimg strange obsession with window shade and armrest positions. Don't know why they care. 15 min tarmac delay on arrival, they blamed airport congestion but we were the o lh flight waiting, it was clear it was due to poor staff planning (only one ground crew to receive airplanes and multiple arrivals) Got there but was rrally lame the whole trip.

Good on that leg. When I arrived in Detroit I had to wait over an hour for luggage.

Boarding was a breeze, however, two of the flights that I boarded with Spirit did not have Wi-Fi available.

Very good. Nothing more or less than expected. No complaints.

My experience with the spirit as a first time it was OK, but the seats need a little cushion, the problem I had the most impacted me was when checking in the scales were so off and wrong. It will tell that you would have more weight, which was not true. The scale was say that it had Thirty Eight Pounds, when get in the labels when we send the luggage into the band. It says that it was overweight. I really really dislike that because the scales are not accurate. If I use Spirit and I have that issue again. That will be my last time flying with the spirit, even though I like so much to service the planes, and everything else

hahaha we are delayed for one hour plus.. but thx we arrived San Diego safe

Worst airline ever! The guy weighing my bag had his foot on the metal plate and when I called him out on it, I got this stupid little smirk. La is a scam and so is Spirit Airlines. All the flight attendants looked like they hated our flight just as much as we did.

Unclear pricing; ended up being charged an extra $52 just to get onboard

Spirit is awful. Too expensive for what you get. Stop nickel and diming.

would be great to get basic water, soda at least and stop charging for carry ons

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