Route · ORD → SFO
Flights from Chicago to San Francisco
Chicago O'Hare to San Francisco is one of the busiest transcontinental corridors in the United States, covering roughly 2,966 km with a typical block time just under four hours westbound and closer to three and a half hours on the return thanks to prevailing tailwinds. United Airlines dominates with high-frequency service, often deploying narrow-body 737s and occasionally wider A319s or 757s, while American Airlines and Alaska Airlines provide meaningful competition; Virgin America historically bolstered capacity on this pairing before its absorption into Alaska. A practical note worth remembering: at O'Hare, United operates primarily from Terminal 1 while American uses Terminal 3, so connecting passengers should budget extra time crossing between them. On fares, midweek departures on Tuesdays and Wednesdays typically track cheaper than weekend travel, and late January through February often surfaces the softest pricing after the holiday surge subsides.
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Cheapest dates to fly
Live prices · powered by AviasalesThe calendar below pulls live fares from our search partner for Chicago (ORD) → San Francisco (SFO). Use the year… view to spot the cheapest week to fly, the day-of-week patterns most travellers miss, and any shoulder-season dips worth shifting your trip around. Prices refresh every few hours, so what you see is what your booking page should look like a moment later — click any date to jump straight to the fare on Aviasales.
Airlines on this route
7 carriersThe 7 carriers we currently track on the Chicago–San Francisco route, from full-service flag carriers to low-cost competitors. Tap any airline for its full profile,… baggage rules, fleet context, and a live fare search pre-filtered to that carrier — useful if you're loyal to a frequent-flyer programme, want to compare onboard product on the same dates, or are weighing a cheaper one-stop against a pricier nonstop.
Flights from Chicago to San Francisco
Live schedule · powered by AviasalesBelow is the published weekly schedule for nonstop and one-stop services from Chicago to San Francisco — the actual flight numbers, departure and arrival times… your booking page will pull from. Use it to plan around departure preferences (early morning vs late evening), see which carriers fly on which weekdays, or pick a connection that lets you sleep in your own bed before a long-haul leg. Click any row to load it directly in the search.
Airport guides
Quick links into the airport profiles at both ends of the route. Each guide covers terminal layout, the airlines that base hubs at ORD and… SFO, the other routes those airports serve, and the ground-transit options most travellers wish they'd read about before landing — the practical context you only really need to know once you've booked, but want to skim before you do.