SBA - ORD

$167 Find Cheap Flights from Santa Barbara to Chicago

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 Barbara to Chicago departing on 8/16. 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.
1 adult
1 adult, Economy

KAYAK searches hundreds of travel sites at once for deals on flights to Chicago O'Hare Intl Airport

 
These are the airlines KAYAK users have selected most often from within our search results in flight searches from Santa Barbara to Chicago, as well as popular online travel agencies
These are the airlines KAYAK users have selected most often from within our search results in flight searches from Santa Barbara to Chicago, as well as popular online travel agencies
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Cheap Flights from Santa Barbara to Chicago (SBA-ORD)

 
Here are some of the best deals found on KAYAK recently from the most popular airlines for round-trip flights from Santa Barbara to Chicago 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 Barbara to Chicago

Thu, Aug 7 - Tue, Aug 12
American Airlines Logo
4:39 pm - 12:35 amSBA-ORD
5h 56m1 stop
American Airlines Logo
6:00 am - 11:22 amORD-SBA
7h 22m1 stop
$326American Airlines
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Mon, Aug 25 - Sat, Aug 30
United Airlines Logo
6:52 pm - 5:08 amSBA-ORD
8h 16m1 stop
United Airlines Logo
4:10 pm - 8:54 pmORD-SBA
6h 44m1 stop
$328United Airlines
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Thu, Aug 7 - Tue, Aug 12
Delta Logo
4:57 pm - 7:49 amSBA-ORD
12h 52m2 stops
Delta Logo
7:45 am - 11:54 amORD-SBA
6h 09m1 stop
$331Delta
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Thu, Aug 7 - Tue, Aug 12
Delta Logo
4:57 pm - 7:49 amSBA-ORD
12h 52m2 stops
Delta Logo
2:00 pm - 10:02 pmORD-SBA
10h 02m2 stops
$336Delta
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Thu, Aug 28 - Tue, Sep 2
United Airlines Logo
2:34 pm - 11:15 pmSBA-ORD
6h 41m1 stop
United Airlines Logo
8:50 am - 1:51 pmORD-SBA
7h 01m1 stop
$352United Airlines
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Wed, Aug 6 - Sun, Aug 10
American Airlines Logo
6:20 am - 3:54 pmSBA-ORD
7h 34m1 stop
American Airlines Logo
8:00 am - 12:19 pmORD-SBA
6h 19m1 stop
$359American Airlines
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Fri, Nov 7 - Tue, Nov 11
Alaska Airlines Logo
7:44 pm - 6:22 amSBA-ORD
8h 38m1 stop
Alaska Airlines Logo
8:00 am - 6:56 pmORD-SBA
12h 56m1 stop
$365Alaska Airlines
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Fri, Oct 3 - Sun, Oct 5
Alaska Airlines Logo
7:30 am - 5:00 amSBA-ORD
19h 30m1 stop
Alaska Airlines Logo
6:00 am - 6:41 pmORD-SBA
14h 41m1 stop
$398Alaska Airlines
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Fri, Nov 7 - Tue, Nov 11
Southwest Logo
3:35 pm - 12:15 pmSBA-ORD
18h 40m2 stops
Southwest Logo
2:15 pm - 9:05 pmORD-SBA
8h 50m2 stops
$401Southwest
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Mon, Aug 4 - Tue, Aug 12
Southwest Logo
3:35 pm - 11:40 pmSBA-ORD
6h 05m1 stop
Southwest Logo
6:15 am - 1:30 pmORD-SBA
9h 15m1 stop
$403Southwest
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Booking Insights

KAYAK's insights & trends for Santa Barbara to Chicago flights

Get data-powered insights and trends into flights from Santa Barbara to Chicago to help you find the cheapest flights, the best time to fly and much more.

How much is a round-trip flight from Santa Barbara to Chicago O'Hare Intl Airport?

What’s the cheapest day of the week to fly from Santa Barbara to Chicago?

The average price of all round-trip flights from Santa Barbara to Chicago O'Hare Intl Airport clicked on KAYAK for each day over the last 12 months.

For Santa Barbara to Chicago, Saturday is the cheapest day to fly on average and Monday is the most expensive. Flying from Chicago back to Santa Barbara, the best deals are generally found on Monday, with Thursday being the most expensive.

What is the cheapest month to fly from Santa Barbara to Chicago O'Hare Intl Airport?

To calculate monthly average prices, KAYAK takes all prices for each month over the last year for round-trip flights from Santa Barbara to Chicago O'Hare Intl Airport, 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 Santa Barbara to Chicago O'Hare Intl Airport is November, where tickets cost $341 (return) on average. On the other hand, the most expensive months are December and January, where the average cost of round-trip tickets is $796 and $575 respectively.

How far in advance should I book a flight from Santa Barbara to Chicago O'Hare Intl Airport?

To calculate weekly average prices, KAYAK takes all prices for each week before departure over the last year for round-trip flights from Santa Barbara to Chicago O'Hare Intl Airport, 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 Santa Barbara to Chicago O'Hare Intl Airport, you should book around 4 weeks before departure. For the absolute cheapest price, our data suggests you should book 21 weeks before departure.

Good to know

Low seasonJanuary
High seasonNovember
Cheapest flight$167
Best time to beat the crowds but there is an average 20% increase in price.
Most popular time to fly and prices are also 29% lower on average.
Flight from Santa Barbara to Chicago

When to book flights from Santa Barbara to Chicago

Are your dates flexible? Find out the best times to travel from Santa Barbara to Chicago based on our flight data from the last year. Discover the cheapest month and even day to fly.
Estimated round-trip price
KAYAK looks at all historical flight data for each date to provide a predicted price for one-way trips or round-trips with a duration up to 40 days. While we try to provide actual minimum prices for each date, some prices are predictions and actual prices may differ.

FAQs for booking Santa Barbara to Chicago flights

  • What is the cheapest flight from Santa Barbara to Chicago O'Hare Intl Airport?

    In the last 3 days, the lowest price for a flight from Santa Barbara to Chicago O'Hare Intl Airport was $167 for a one-way ticket and $326 for a round-trip.

  • Do I need a passport to fly between Santa Barbara and Chicago?

    No, a passport isn't needed to fly from Santa Barbara to Chicago. However, local authorities might ask for an official ID.

  • Which airports will I be using when flying from Santa Barbara to Chicago?

    On your way to Chicago, you’ll fly out from Santa Barbara. You’ll be landing at Chicago O'Hare Intl.

  • Which aircraft models fly most regularly from Santa Barbara to Chicago?

    We unfortunately don’t have that data for this specific route.

  • Which airline alliances offer flights from Santa Barbara to Chicago?

    oneworld, Star Alliance, and SkyTeam are the airline alliances operating flights between Santa Barbara and Chicago, with oneworld being the most commonly used for this route.

  • Which is the best airline for flights from Santa Barbara to Chicago, Delta or Southwest?

    The two airlines most popular with KAYAK users for flights from Santa Barbara to Chicago are Delta and Southwest. With an average price for the route of $356 and an overall rating of 8.0, Delta is the most popular choice. Southwest is also a great choice for the route, with an average price of $450 and an overall rating of 8.0.

  • How does KAYAK find such low prices on flights from Santa Barbara to Chicago?

    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 Santa Barbara to Chicago.

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

    KAYAK’s flight Price Forecast tool uses historical data to determine whether the price for a flight to Chicago from Santa Barbara 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 Santa Barbara to Chicago?

    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 Chicago with an airline and back to Santa Barbara with another airline. Booking your flights between Santa Barbara and ORD can sometimes prove cheaper using this method.

  • What is KAYAK's "flexible dates" feature and why should I care when looking for a flight from Santa Barbara to Chicago?

    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 Chicago from Santa Barbara up to 3 days before/after your preferred dates. You can then pick the flights that suit you best.

KAYAK’s top tips for finding a cheap flight from Santa Barbara to Chicago O'Hare Intl Airport

  • Looking for a cheap flight? 25% of our users found flights on this route for $169 or less one-way.

Reviews of the top 4 airlines serving from Santa Barbara to Chicago

 
See real verified KAYAK customer reviews for airlines flying from Santa Barbara to Chicago. 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 Santa Barbara to Chicago? 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
SouthwestOverall score based on 4239 reviews
8.0Comfort
7.6Entertainment
7.0Food
8.6Crew
8.1Boarding
Airline reviews

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.

6.0 GoodAnonymous, Jul 2025BDL - MDW
Read more Southwest reviews

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.

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 trays in our seats, we sat in first row, purchased a business class fare. Had to hold our drinks and snack in our hands. No plugs for our cell phones. Had to pay for it a drink cocktail each. Seats so uncomfortable.

Flight wasn’t even full, but too many carry-ons caused us to run out of bin space. New bag fee has folks who would usually check their bags carrying on. Watching Southwest morph into Spirit/Frontier is so sad to watch

Everything was on time. I was disappointed by the front section female, African American flight attendant. I did not see her name tag or would have identified by name not race. As passengers moved to the bathroom early in flight, she would say with a disdainful tone “I have to say the seat belt light is on” then go back to her book. Better trained flight attendants say something like be careful the seat belt light is on.

Southwest is Southwest. No frills. If you're luck enough to get a happy crew (we did), then it makes for a nicer flight.

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

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

I liked the crew member who gave flight instructions on "in case of a problem:. The seats are so small that only a young teenager could sit in middle seat.

Great flight staff. Ease of boarding. Overall, very uneventful and easy trip.

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

There was a security issue at the airport and we were unable to land. We circled endlessly and then landed at another airfield for fuel. We then circled the airport again, almost landed but didn’t fully touch down before circling again. I am thankful to the crew for keeping us safe- the issue was the airline and staff at the airport getting us seats on our connecting flights. That part was hours of searching for someone and getting in double my steps.

Most aspects were good however if they assign boarding zones they ought to enforce them or why bother? My luggage from SAN-JFK-MAD was lost in NY so I without my main bag for two days upon arrival in Spain. They were helpful in tracking it and eventually delivered it to my hotel. The flub was because of a delay upon arrival in NYC. I had booked 2 1/2 hours between flights but we had to hold on the taxiway for an hour after landing while waiting for a clear gate which likely caused the baggage error.

Excellent flight, the planes were newer, they did a nice job with boarding, great service overall.

It would be nice if was given wires ear buds. Overall was a good experience was able to sleep on the plane

737-800 in first class was pretty dumpy. Seat had an uncomfortable angle, storage under the seat was blocked so even my very modest backpack didn't fit, power outlet was flaky. Weird tiny seat pockets that couldn't hold a gallon ziploc bag, emesis bag missing, etc. etc. No in-flight service due to turbulence. Crew was excellent, boarding was smooth despite a full flight.

Delta flight was on time, seats were comfortable, and crew was nice.

Overall it was good. I missed my connection but I was put on another flight.

Overall a very poor experience - booked premium economy tickets but due to last minute flight delays , all my itinery went for a toss and had to fly economy class with no access to lounge or any compensation by united airlines to make up for the flight delays . i had expected better experience than that from united.

It was fine, definitely older planes with no charging or anything. There’s no entertainment set up on board, but it is nice that they allow you to access the in flight entertainment from your phone without having to pay for the Wi-Fi and they do offer free texting.

I liked that the flight was nonstop from ORD to CIU for $200 round trip.

While the staff was pleasant and helpful, the following observations are for your awareness. There was some delay on the tarmac on take off and landing. The paid lunch/food offerings were limited. Entertainment was only available on WiFi at a cost.

The first flight was better in terms of the aircraft.

Smooth flight. Boarding was chaotic. Could not hear the gate agent over the intercom. People were lined up in the wrong lines. Groups one and two were told to board through line one and group 3 through line 2. All very confusing. Once in the air, the flight was smooth. There was no entertainment option on this aircraft, even though it was a larger aircraft.

Overall poor for me I paid extra for seats with leg room and my regional flights exit row seats have less leg room then the others that's money that could have been saved and on my final flight home the flights air was not operating it was unbearably hot in the cabin I will be contacting United and filing a DOT complaint

There's just no way to sit fully upright and comfortably in these seats. There needs to be 2 more inches of room, and that's not something that only one person on the flight needs - the whole flight needs 2 more inches of room. If that means you sell 6 less seats, so be it. It's too close for anyone. Forcing people to pay for "premium" economy just to get "barely enough space to breathe" isn't really an answer to that.

The crew were very nice. The Chocolate is good and v there’s no entertainment. Thanks

The flight was fine and the crew awesome. The problem is ORD and AA. Computers went down, ORD fell apart and a 40 min flight turned into a 3 hour trip. Guess the answer is to not try and fly to ORD after noon. But, as I said, crew was awesome and did everything they could to lesson the flight time.

The flight was fine but the 8 hour delay in Chicago was awful - 5 gate changes and repeated delays without an explanation. No vouchers. Nothing.

Most miserable flight ever. We waited almost 2 hours on the runway because the flight was oversold. American offered $1200 credit. Then there was some nonsense about weight distribution. Ridiculous. No food for 8 plus hours on the flight. I will be writing a letter.

The flight was 2 hour delayed, otherwise everything was excellent. The delay was due to the hourly limit requirement so given that as a reason, I'm happy with the flight!

Not sure the logic of the boarding in Groups. I was loaded first on the aisle. Then the guy in the middle. Then the guy by the window. Constantly holding up the other people boarding behind them with us blocking the aisle and this happened in most of the other rows

To start, I’d like to say that every American Airline personnel I interacted with on the ground, especially flight crew, was very friendly and did their best to help me out. Despite this, however, my experience with the airline was an entire mess. The 7:19 PM flight was heavily delayed due to weather, and pushed to 10:30 AM the next morning. Because of this, I had to spend the night inside of the airport. At some point later in the night, I got an email saying that the flight had been canceled. I called the support number, and the representative on the other line told me that the flight was still on and that I didn’t need to rebook. The next morning, no one came to the gate to open the door for the crew until almost 11 AM. By this time the flight crew had been waiting for over an hour, and they had called management to get someone to open the door for them multiple times. Around 11:30, the gate screen had changed to a different flight. I ended up buying a last minute ticket with Southwest airline just to get to Chicago, because the next flight with American wasn’t until 7:19 pm that day. Now, earlier that morning my suitcase had been sent ahead of me to ORD. I went to baggage claim to ask them if I could have my suitcase forwarded to where I was staying. The representative at SDF baggage claim said they could and put the claim in for me. As I was going back through TSA, I got an email that the airline had found my suitcase, but the next step was to send it BACK to SDF. I called the airline support number again, and I made it clear that my suitcase needed to stay in Chicago and to not come back to SDF. The representative told me that they would hold my suitcase at ORD and that it wasn’t going to be forwarded anywhere. Once I got there, I found that they had loaded my suitcase onto a plane to send it back to SDF. Thankfully, I had gotten to the baggage claim counter in time for them to put in a request to bring my suitcase back up. My refund with the airline is processing already, but because of this entire experience and miscommunication at every turn of the way, I will not book with American Airlines in the future.

The plane was late and then sat on the runway for almost 45 minutes before taking off.

Crew professional. Easy bag drop off. On time. Good entertainment.

Everything was great. Boarding, early departure, early arrival, and deplaning were smooth. Smooth flight.

Per usual, flight status, staff courtesy and professionalism were excellent

Everything you need to know for your flight from Santa Barbara to Chicago

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