SBA

Find cheap flights to Santa Barbara from $59

This is the cheapest one-way flight price found by a KAYAK user in the last 72 hours by searching for a flight departing on 6/27. 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.
Round-trip
1 adult
Economy
0 bags
Sun 7/2
Sun 7/9

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Good to know

Low season

December

High season

March

Cheapest flight

$59

Good deal round-trip

$119

Good deal one-way

$134
Best time to beat the crowds with an average 4% drop in price.
Most popular time to fly with an average 11% increase in price.
Flight from San Francisco to Santa Barbara
or less
or less

When to book flights to Santa Barbara

Estimated round-trip price
Average price per month
Flight prices as travel date approaches

Top tips for finding cheap flights to Santa Barbara

  • Looking for cheap airfare to Santa Barbara? 25% of our users found tickets to Santa Barbara for the following prices or less: From Los Angeles $219 one-way - $183 round-trip, from Phoenix Sky Harbor Intl $224 one-way - $281 round-trip, from Dallas/Fort Worth $291 one-way - $377 round-trip
  • Book at least 2 weeks 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 from United States is February.
  • Enter your preferred departure airport and travel dates into the search form above to unlock the latest Santa Barbara flight deals.
  • If you have a question about the city or some of the airport’s amenities, stop by the Visitor Information Desk in the baggage claim of Santa Barbara Airport (SBA). This desk is run by Santa Barbara Chamber of Commerce volunteers who will provide you with recommendations for what to see in the area as well as free maps.
  • Santa Barbara Airport is known for being small and easy to navigate, meaning that only several major airlines provide direct flights to this location. If you want to ensure that you do not have a layover and are only looking at direct flights to Santa Barbara, book your reservation with Alaska, American, Frontier, or United Airlines.
  • Having a friend or family member meet you after your flight to Santa Barbara has landed? Tell them that they can wait for you in the free Cell Phone Lot that is located off of James Fowler Road near the WWII Memorial. Once you have picked up your luggage they can come pick you up from the Arrivals terminal.
  • To rent a car from Santa Barbara Airport, go to the rental car center next to the baggage claim in the Arrivals terminal. You will find desks for 7 major companies including Budget, Hertz, and National. Thrifty also has an off-site office that is just a 3-minute drive from the airport’s main terminal.
  • For travelers that are art enthusiasts, don’t forget to enjoy the various exhibits that are located in the entrances and exits of the main building of Santa Barbara Airport. You will find several different statues, paintings, and photographs, all of which were done by local artists.

FAQs - booking Santa Barbara flights

Top 4 airlines flying to Santa Barbara

Scores according to KAYAK customer reviews
8.4
SouthwestOverall score based on 13955 reviews
86overall
78food
80entertainment
87boarding
84comfort
90crew
Airline reviews
Cons: "Flight was too crowded with customers only 4 feet apart during flight IN THE SAME ROW BUT NOT IN FRONT OR BEHIND YOU. Whats the point of social distancing when you have people directly behind you two feet away"
Cons: "Flight was too crowded with customers only 4 feet apart during flight IN THE SAME ROW BUT NOT IN FRONT OR BEHIND YOU. Whats the point of social distancing when you have people directly behind you two feet away"
Pros: "There only 11 passengers . Not only did we each have our own row we had our own section."
Pros: "Seats were very nice. Felt like a new plane. Love the boarding procedure."
Pros: "This was the least comfortable seating experience I have ever had. The legroom was tight and the seat was very uncomfortable."
Cons: "Humor doesn't cover the corporate decision to operate a cattle-car."
Cons: "There was a plane at our gate, so we had to wait on the tarmac 5-10 minutes until the gate was free. A ready gate would’ve made my experience perfect."
Pros: "I liked that they eventually let us deplane after sitting on the jetway for over 2 hours."
Cons: "Let me tell you the tale of flight 461. -5:30pm: I leave my home and start traveling to the airport. A few minutes later, I get a notification that flight is delayed 2:25. -6:10pm: Arrive at airport. No meal voucher to be provided by SWA. Why? Customer service won’t say. -9:30pm: Ok, everyone’s on the plane, let’s go! You wouldn’t have boarded all of us unless that was about to happen, right? -10pm ish: still on the jetway, being held by ATC for an undisclosed reason. Pilot comes on intercom, says we’ll wait here for another hour. No snacks, no drinks, sit in your seat and shut up. -11pm ish: Holding for another hour. -11:30pm ish: Ok, we’re going back to the gate. Why were we ever boarded? Don’t know! -11:40pm ish: The pilot misjudged the distance to the jetway, please fasten your seatbelts again, we need to move the plane. I kid you not, flight attendant actually said this. Absolute last straw. -11:55pm ish: Gate agent fumbles through my refund, which I need to call again about this morning. -7:15am ish: Write review, join JetSuite, and try to forget about this complete waste of time that is flight 461."
Pros: "Crew had a sense of humor on Christmas day flight."
Cons: "More amenities like real food."
Cons: "Our flight was delayed 2.5 hours, even though the plane was already at the gate. Of course, they woudn't say why, but it appears that they needed to use our plane for another flight, which boarded into what was originally our plane about 45 minutes after our flight was delayed and moved to another gate."
Pros: "Crew was very nice!"
Cons: "It was really cold at the beginning of the flight! So I wasn’t as comfortable until the heater came on."
Pros: "Crew was very friendly and provided excellent service."
Cons: "Wifi out on this flight. Short flight so no problem."
Pros: "Seat was ok"
Cons: "Had to take a bus to the plane at SFO. Wouldn’t have taken this flight if I had known, but they don’t tell you this at booking. Also, was told carry on back wouldn’t fit in overhead and that I had to check it, which isn’t true as I saw other passengers with my exact same bag who didn’t have to check theirs and it fit."
Pros: "I like the spaciousness in the front for your feet."
Cons: "The flight lasted about 5 hours, but they only offered limited small snack (chip or granola bar) and some drinks. They have sandwich and other real food but it costs around $9.5. Some other airlines provide free full meal even the flight time was only 3 hours."
Pros: "The dessert was good. The movie/TV selection was good."
Cons: "Seats are EXTREMELY UNCOMFORTABLE. Staff was indifferent."
Pros: "Everything was great except the delay and also the delay in getting my baggage"
Cons: "We could have left on time"
Pros: "Crew were very attentive and hospitable to the crew. I have been flying ASIANA many times and enjoy the flight as well."
Cons: "Not enough fruit & cheese boxes to reach past mid plane"
Pros: "plane was not full. I had an empty seat nextto me."
Cons: "late departure. very long walk from the gate to the luggage carousel."
Pros: "Short flight."
Cons: "Flew Alaska Airlines back to back bright had food service. This flight was initially moved back 30 minutes from when I first booked and then delayed twice at the airport. Created a much longer layover and resulted I having to change other reservations at destination."
Pros: "Nothing this trip :("
Cons: "Some assistance finding lodging and a voucher for lodging and food at the very least"
Pros: "The premium seats, snacks and drinks that come with."
Cons: "There needs to be power outlets on the smaller planes. I paid to upgrade to premium and there was no power outlet"

Don’t fly American. Do anything you can to avoid it

The plane is old and really small. Crew was great

Pros: "My flight was canceled and I don't know when or how much I will be refunded. The flight was canceled due to "maintenance" and they booked me on a new flight...for 16 hours later on the NEXT DAY. That was not acceptable for me and my travel companion since we have work today. There were no other flights and rental cars were scarce. I was able to book us tickets on a bus, and incurred costs for the bus tickets and the transportation to the bus stop. I want to be compensated for those costs AND refunded for the price of the ticket."
Cons: "Everything. There was also a lot of miscommunication about how my gate checked bag would be handled. Once I got back to Austin, my husband had to drive all the way out to the airport to retrieve my bag because they were not able to give it to me in Dallas. It was a huge inconvenience all around."
Pros: "crew was great and moved me further up in the plane to make a tight connection"
Cons: "food"
Cons: "The past two times flying with American out of Dallas my girlfriend and I have been separated on the flight. The first time we were able to be placed with each other but this time the attendant at the counter basically told everyone that because the flight was booked and there were so many people who had the issue that she could not move anyone around to be with their families. That on top of being rude to many of the flyers just makes the DFW experience with American feel like they don’t care about you."
Cons: "It sure what could have been better other than all bulkhead seats are terrible for taller people."
Pros: "the crew was amazing. Seats needs to be more comfortable."
Cons: "seat needs to be more comfortable."
Cons: "The plane was ancient. Cabin was freezing, seats were rocks. Using an old short-haul CRJ for a 3.5 hour flight sucked."
Cons: "Flight was delayed due to weather. That is understandable. However the crew was not helpful in sharing any information with customers about changes to connecting flights. Much time was wasted and I had to reschedule my flight. The staff members that booked my hotel and my new flight were short and brief and not very helpful or accommodating or informative. Overall I didn’t not feel like a welcomed guest and I do not feel enough compensation was offered for such an inconvenience. Not being able to have my bag overnight was a hassle. I had no clean clothes and had to throw out my contacts because I had no solution. I also couldn’t use the meal voucher they gave me because everywhere in the airport was closed by that time. No stipend was given for toiletries or food delivery. Very unimpressed."
Cons: "Lady at the gate barely paid any attention to the line. I had to ask her whether or now I can proceed"
Cons: "I got two basic economy seats and no seat assignment until after other passengers had already started boarding. The gate agent showed up late so it was a hassle to get to the counter and find out where I was sitting. Then there was a long backup on the gang way, and we still couldn't get on the plane. We were delayed sitting on the tarmac for an extra hour, the crew could have given us drinks or snacks then."
Pros: "The crew was nice. When I finally arrived in Denver, Marlin in customer service was the only saving grace for United for me. When I asked for options for an earlier flight into Rapid City so I didn’t have to wait 24 hours and miss my visit with my sister, he looked at different hubs (Chicago, Minneapolis) to see if they had any available flights into Rapid, he checked for double bookings, and when he couldn’t find anything, he put me on the standby list for the first flight out in the morning and wrote down the flight information for all of the United flights from Denver for the following day. Marlin provided excellent customer service and was a huge credit to the company."
Cons: "The flight was supposed to leave at 3:56 pm and didn’t leave until 7:30 pm. I would estimate at least 15-20 people missed connecting flights because of the delay. According to the United app, the delay initially started in Portland due to mechanical issues, which took over 3 hours. Then, there was a weather delay in San Francisco according to the gate agent - there was a ground hold and no planes were landing or flying out. At some point, I would think another plane would have been an option rather than delaying a flight for this long and disrupting holiday travel for so many people."
Cons: "I missed my flight from Dallas to Houston because the flight from Frankfurt was late. However I appreciate the promptness with which Lufthansa customer rep attended to me and put me on another flight. Excellent."
Cons: "Told I would need to check my bag at the gate, only to find plenty of overhead bin space once all passengers boarded"
Cons: "United really seems to have issues with their planes. Problems on Wednesday then again today. On Wednesday we boarded late and pushed people’s flights back because the cleaners didn’t show up at boarding time and at landing time we had to go back up when the prior flight was still on the runway."
Pros: "The crew was magnificent"
Cons: "Be nice to offer a glass of water to your clients!!"
Pros: "The crew was friendly but because of 5 flight delays we missed our connections in Amsterdam and got stuck in Houston for the night."
Cons: "The crew was friendly but because of 5 flight delays we missed our connection to Amsterdam and got stuck in Houston for the night. Because of this we were forced to pay for a hotel in Houston. I believe that we should have received some type of voucher for the huge inconvenience and waste of money"
Pros: "Food was delicious! Crew was very nice and friendly and plane was very clean."
Cons: "I was sitting two rows from the bathroom and the entire time the bathroom reeked of urine. It was unbearable."
Pros: "Our flight attendants were awesome!!"
Cons: "A/C was a bit cold, but would rather be cold than hot."

Book Cheap Santa Barbara Plane Tickets

Recent round-trip flight deals

9/3Sun
nonstopUnited Airlines
1h 23mSFO-SBA
9/27Wed
nonstopUnited Airlines
1h 10mSBA-SFO
$118
9/3Sun
nonstopUnited Airlines
1h 23mSFO-SBA
9/27Wed
1 stopUnited Airlines
6h 25mSBA-SFO
$163
9/3Sun
nonstopUnited Airlines
1h 23mSFO-SBA
9/28Thu
nonstopUnited Airlines
1h 10mSBA-SFO
$168
7/3Mon
nonstopAmerican Airlines
1h 31mPHX-SBA
7/7Fri
nonstopAmerican Airlines
1h 42mSBA-PHX
$178
10/17Tue
nonstopUnited Airlines
1h 23mSFO-SBA
10/25Wed
1 stopUnited Airlines
7h 41mSBA-SFO
$178
9/4Mon
1 stopUnited Airlines
15h 49mSFO-SBA
9/27Wed
nonstopUnited Airlines
1h 10mSBA-SFO
$187
9/3Sun
nonstopUnited Airlines
1h 23mSFO-SBA
9/25Mon
nonstopUnited Airlines
1h 10mSBA-SFO
$188
9/2Sat
1 stopUnited Airlines
5h 01mPHX-SBA
9/5Tue
1 stopUnited Airlines
3h 39mSBA-PHX
$197
6/27Tue
nonstopAmerican Airlines
1h 31mPHX-SBA
7/2Sun
nonstopAmerican Airlines
1h 34mSBA-PHX
$203
9/3Sun
1 stopUnited Airlines
7h 45mSFO-SBA
9/26Tue
1 stopUnited Airlines
6h 25mSBA-SFO
$207
9/4Mon
2 stopsUnited Airlines
24h 59mSFO-SBA
9/26Tue
nonstopUnited Airlines
1h 10mSBA-SFO
$211
8/22Tue
1 stopAmerican Airlines
8h 07mSEA-SBA
8/29Tue
1 stopAmerican Airlines
7h 54mSBA-SEA
$212
8/22Tue
nonstopAlaska Airlines
2h 33mSEA-SBA
8/29Tue
nonstopAlaska Airlines
2h 34mSBA-SEA
$239
9/2Sat
nonstopAmerican Airlines
1h 34mPHX-SBA
9/5Tue
nonstopAmerican Airlines
1h 36mSBA-PHX
$253
11/11Sat
1 stopAmerican Airlines
6h 14mSEA-SBA
11/14Tue
1 stopAmerican Airlines
6h 27mSBA-SEA
$257
9/10Sun
nonstopAlaska Airlines
2h 35mSEA-SBA
9/11Mon
nonstopAlaska Airlines
2h 35mSBA-SEA
$258
8/17Thu
1 stopAmerican Airlines
4h 38mDEN-SBA
8/22Tue
1 stopAmerican Airlines
4h 14mSBA-DEN
$259
7/25Tue
nonstopAlaska Airlines
2h 35mSEA-SBA
7/26Wed
nonstopAlaska Airlines
2h 30mSBA-SEA
$278
8/22Tue
1 stopAlaska Airlines
4h 08mSEA-SBA
8/29Tue
nonstopAlaska Airlines
2h 34mSBA-SEA
$292
7/8Sat
nonstopAlaska Airlines
2h 13mPDX-SBA
7/12Wed
nonstopAlaska Airlines
2h 06mSBA-PDX
$308

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Recent one-way flight deals

6/27Tue
nonstopUnited Airlines
1h 23mSFO-SBA
$59
7/11Tue
1 stopUnited Airlines
4h 42mSEA-SBA
$89
10/7Sat
1 stopUnited Airlines
7h 17mSEA-SBA
$94
7/3Mon
1 stopUnited Airlines
4h 03mPHX-SBA
$99
9/7Thu
nonstopUnited Airlines
2h 37mDEN-SBA
$106
6/24Sat
nonstopUnited Airlines
1h 23mSFO-SBA
$109
6/27Tue
nonstopAmerican Airlines
1h 31mPHX-SBA
$114
9/7Thu
1 stopUnited Airlines
5h 08mDEN-SBA
$116
7/2Sun
nonstopAlaska Airlines
2h 35mSEA-SBA
$119
7/8Sat
nonstopUnited Airlines
1h 23mSFO-SBA
$120
7/8Sat
1 stopSouthwest
4h 20mOAK-SBA
$131
9/23Sat
1 stopAmerican Airlines
8h 19mEWR-SBA
$138
7/11Tue
nonstopAlaska Airlines
2h 35mSEA-SBA
$139
7/8Sat
1 stopSouthwest
4h 10mSFO-SBA
$153
8/25Fri
1 stopAmerican Airlines
10h 04mEWR-SBA
$168
8/26Sat
2 stopsAmerican Airlines
10h 45mEWR-SBA
$171
8/24Thu
2 stopsAmerican Airlines
13h 41mEWR-SBA
$172
7/1Sat
1 stopAlaska Airlines
17h 00mPDX-SBA
$198
7/19Wed
nonstopAlaska Airlines
2h 13mPDX-SBA
$199
8/14Mon
3 stopsMultiple Airlines
17h 48mDEN-SBA
$382

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