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Find cheap flights from the United Kingdom to California from $197

This is the cheapest one-way flight price found by a KAYAK user in the last 72 hours by searching for a flight from the United Kingdom to California departing on 5/30. 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
0 bags
Sat 6/15
Sat 6/22

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Good to know

Low season

January

High season

May

Cheapest flight

$197
Best time to beat the crowds with an average 16% drop in price.
Most popular time to fly and prices are also 2% lower on average.
Flight from London Gatwick Airport to Los Angeles

FAQs for booking flights from the United Kingdom to California

  • I’m booking a flight to California to visit San Francisco. Which airport do I choose?

    San Francisco International is the closest to the city centre (15min) and has the most options when it comes to airlines and routes. United, British Airways, and Virgin Atlantic operate direct flights from London Heathrow, Norwegian flies from London Gatwick, and Thomas Cook Airlines operates seasonal flights to SFO from Manchester. However, this is one of the busiest airports in California; if you’d prefer a less busy airport, you can fly to San Jose International, which is 47min from downtown San Francisco. However, do keep in mind that British Airways is the only airline to operate regular flights to this airport from London Heathrow.

  • I’m planning a trip to Yosemite National Park. What’s the best airport to fly into?

    The closest airport to Yosemite is Fresno Yosemite International Airport (FAT), about 96 mi away from the park and accessible by road. If you want to fly from the United Kingdom all the way to Yosemite, you'll have to have a stopover either in San Francisco or Los Angeles. United flies from Heathrow and Gatwick to San Francisco and Los Angeles, while American Airlines flies to Los Angeles from Heathrow. Alternatively, or if you’d prefer to fly as little as possible, you can fly into San Francisco and then drive to Yosemite (approx. 3h 50min).

  • Which international airport in California is closest to Disneyland?

    Los Angeles International Airport is the closest to Disneyland California, which is about 35min away by car. This airport is served by the Disneyland Resort Express bus, which takes passengers straight to the park.

  • I’m searching for flights to California from Northern Ireland. Which are the best airports?

    If your final destination is Los Angeles or San Francisco, you can choose to catch a flight to California from London Heathrow with British Airways, Virgin Atlantic, and United, or from London Gatwick with Norwegian. easyJet operates direct flights to Gatwick from Belfast International Airport (BFS), while Aer Lingus and British Airways operate regular flights to Heathrow from George Best Belfast City Airport (BHD). If you’re flying to San Jose or San Diego, you’ll have to fly out of London Heathrow on British Airways. The simplest option is to book your flight to California with this airline from Belfast International.

  • How does KAYAK find such low prices on flights from the United Kingdom to California?

    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 the United Kingdom to California.

  • How does KAYAK's flight Price Forecast tool help me choose the right time to buy my flight ticket from the United Kingdom to California?

    KAYAK’s flight Price Forecast tool uses historical data to determine whether the price for a flight to California from the United Kingdom 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 the United Kingdom to California?

    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 California with an airline and back to the United Kingdom with another airline.

  • What is KAYAK's "flexible dates" feature and why should I care when looking for a flight from the United Kingdom to California?

    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 California from the United Kingdom up to 3 days before/after your preferred dates. You can then pick the flights that suit you best.

See more FAQs

Top tips for finding a cheap flight out of the United Kingdom

  • For passengers flying from other cities in the UK without direct flights to California and who prefer to fly low-cost to London, Flybe operates regular flights to London Heathrow from Aberdeen and Edinburgh. On the other hand, Gatwick has more options for low-cost flights with easyJet operating regular connections with Belfast, Glasgow, and Inverness.
  • When looking for flights to California, you can choose from four international airports with regular direct flights to the UK. Those are Los Angeles International Airport (LAX), San Diego International Airport (SAN), San Francisco International Airport (SFO), and San Jose International Airport (SJC).
  • London Heathrow (LHR) is the airport in the United Kingdom with the most options when it comes to airlines flying to all the four major airports in California. Keep in mind that if you’re flying from elsewhere, you’ll probably need to factor in a stopover here.
  • If you prefer to fly out of London Gatwick (LGW), you'll have fewer options in terms of routes and airlines. Norwegian is the only airline operating direct flights to California from this airport, and only to Los Angeles and San Francisco.
  • If you’d like to book a direct flight to California from Manchester Airport (MAN), look for seasonal flights operated by Virgin Atlantic and Thomas Cook Airlines to San Francisco or Los Angeles.
See more tips

Top 5 airlines serving from the United Kingdom to California

 
Need help choosing which airline to fly with from the United Kingdom to California? 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.
7.8
Cathay PacificOverall score based on 1084 reviews
8.2Crew
8.0Boarding
7.8Comfort
7.5Food
7.9Entertainment
Airline reviews

Very comfortable Prem economy seats for a long haul flight. Had a problem with the tv that the crew fixed so was great!

10.0 ExcellentAnonymous, Apr 2024HKG - JFK
Read more about Cathay Pacific reviews

Very comfortable Prem economy seats for a long haul flight. Had a problem with the tv that the crew fixed so was great!

Cathay Pacific seems to be an airline in trouble and on its way out. Lots of broken or poorly functioning things like entertainment screens, seats, and enough well trained staff to handle a full flight. Sad...

While I was in great pain, the seat was sufficiently comfortable to allow me to rest and not be in so much pain.

we were upgraded which was a blessing and tender mercy for us. I fell the day before and was in extreme pain from knee to shoulder. Sitting in a more comfortable seat during the flight was an unexpected blessing and experience.

Not impressed with check in desk staff at Vancouver airport. Not a professional mind service and not cared or tried to help. Don’t think I would fly with them again

Flight crew was especially thoughtful and attentive, made sure our seats were comfortable so we could rest on the long flight

One of the worst flight in business class by qatar airways and I’m no stranger with qatar airways businesses class, I travelled with the extensively in the past 12 years

Very comfortable flights. Not so many new releases in terms of films.

The aircraft was slightly newer but the food was very bad. Bland and uninteresting. Nothing special at all.

I felt thirsty and asked the flight attendent for water, but no one came for more than half an hour.

On the flight back the seats where very uncomfortable, they where so bad that my back started to hurt after the first 2 hours. I can sit in a wooden chair for 2 hours. But these where just horrible, it just shows how cheap the airline has become. And the cabin was heated all those people in a heated cabin during a night flight. It was clear the climate control was not working. To top that off you are not even offered a glass of water, these people are animals.

We purchased a Go First Pass for 10 Euros each so we could board first, but everyone was able to board at the same time so we wasted 20 Euros. The flight left ab out 15 minutes late and was not allowed to land at Healthrow so we had to circle Heathrow for about 45 minutes. This caused us to almost miss our flight from Heathrow to Atlanta.

Severely delayed with no notice. Could have arrived at the airport hours later had we been informed of the delay

Once the boarding sign went on and all passengers gathered in line, we were left waiting standing up for almost an hour because there was a delay.

It would be nice to have vegan options for meals. The entertainment was not working on the the way to Austria. It was only available near the end of flight to Canada. The service was excellent.

Flight was delayed by approx 1 hour. The boarding process and the flight itself were very good, slightly tight squeeze for my legs but overall happy.

The business class layout on this plane is tightly packed and atrocious with no sense of privacy.

Flight was meant to leave at 8:30pm but there was a 2 hour delay 😞

Airmalta does not include meals in their flights and neither offers entertainment.

Pros: "The crew was amazing and took measures to make the flight Covid safe"
Cons: "The food was not the best and Twistees weren't available. Also the seats felt narrow"

The trip itself was good. I have given only good as rating, because my first flight has been cancelled by a different airline and that caused disruption in my trip. I spent over ten hours in Luton airport and that caused me high tiredness, sickness, because of the very early initial trip. easyJet staff has been professional and friendly.

Very pleasant crew, working hard on a full plane. Delay by a broken seat. However crew made back 60% of the delay.

Delayed and then further delayed with no announcement made so that all the passengers (who were standing in the jetty) could hear. We stood there for well over 20 minutes. We were further delayed through weather but no one explained that to us until the pilot made an announcement when finally on board

easyJet need to ensure that whether pre-booking seats or not children aren’t split from their parents the crew spent the majority of boarding asking passengers to move to accommodate two families. Surely the system identifies minors on a booking !!!!! It was all very frustrating to watch and caused delays which I’m sure cost easyJet more in the long run rather that automatically allocating families with minors seats together automatically.

Not great! Rude staff in London and the worse baggage reclaim I’ve ever seen. Great staff in flight but doubt I’ll fly with them again

Staff had been really impolite at the boarding area and for both ways charged high extra fees without a reason. For the check-in luggage which was measured 3.5 kg and was confirmed by the stuff to cost 40 € , 60 Euros had been purchased from our credit card. When confronted staff did call us both liars and claimed to never have announced anything. Flight back , when not wanting to press a backpack in a measuring metal instead of hand measuring , staff got angry that one did not follow her order, which was than escalated by the team. Although carrying a baby anyways staff did not offer any help in the unreasonable process and than charged again extra money. Cabine crew has been friendly but this experience LL lead to not booking easy jet at all in the future. Check in process in Edinburgh anyways chaotic,to the family check-in and disabled check-in everybody else was guided for check in process, so people just getting in between each other, not possible to monitor your own stuff.

As you would expect from a budget airline Left and arrived on time, no frills, not even a glass of water offered But you get what you pay for

I had an emergency escape seat. The attendant gave the extrA briefing to my side of the aisle but didnt direct it at all to the other where my wife was sitting

Boarding great. Didn’t eat or drink so can not comment.

Total jobs worths over carry on bags, charged £96 extra for bags that were clearly hand luggage

Very good, everything went straight forward, boarding, during the flight, landing and all on time Well done

flight delayed, no information given until late on, Ryanair app said "on time" until 5 minutes before expected departure time, crew rushed us to board, when it was already 3 hours late

I got denied boarding bevause they said they "ran out of seats on a plane"

Speakers were blaring. It's like being in a Moroccan market and you keep getting shouted at with what's for sale

What can you say Ryanair get you there,no frills Not so cheap anymore ..... but what is now days! Would use again as always. Good flight times for us.

very delayed boarding; the crew started the service extremely late and everything felt like they didn't want to be there and do their jobs; the pilot changed her mind about landing :))))))))) and we spent 10 more minutes circling around the airport before landing, eventually!!! lack of communication = lack of professionalism. she could have said 'ladies and gentlemen, due to us having taken off very late, we have lost our landing permissions and we'll have to wait some more', but she chose to shut up. big mistake that reflects poorly on the airline and herself.

Very unpleasant staff, disgusting service, ignoring requests, refusal to help

Late again rude staff at gate bullying passengers made us stand in the cold 3degrees for 40 mins before they let us board

The usual average Ryanair flight, but we landed 20 min before due time, which was very good.

Great flight and reminded that the logistics completely Astoria. No real story about victors, m

Boarding good. Seats uncomfortable when lie flat. Food was awful. Tasted stale and chicken was dry. No live tv or flight map. Had to pay for internet.

Poor technical details on this plane. 1) There was no WiFi on an 8 hour long-haul flight. So no work could be done. That's below the standard expected for airlines these days. 2) The power outlet at my seat was busted and not working. 3) The headphone jack was loose and I had to keep adjusting my headphones to get good reception, or when it slipped out. - The flight was delayed to due mechanics. Sometimes this can't be avoided, I understand, and it's a big inconvenience to arrive that much later when traveling across time zones (then arriving at 4am from the prior time zone). - Also unique to this flight, the northern lights were visible on the right side of the aircraft, but I only found out after we landed (b/c again no wifi). I understand there are considerations about people being out of their seats to look, but I feel extremely disappointed and resentful that I wasn't told so that I could have a chance to look at this probably once-in-a-lifetime cosmic event from a view in the sky. - Flight crew was otherwise friendly and helpful.

I would have preferred something lighter for the second meal. Maybe a small sandwich .

They cancelled our flight the morning of departure at 4:30am.

Coach seats are too tight. Seem designed for small people. Food different but OK. Staff helpful.

my original flight was cancelled the previous day, and i was rescheduled onto this flight, which left much earlier in the morning, impacting my previous evening and requiring me to get up much earlier in the morning to get to the airport online. This practice happens way way way too much, and it seems on every airline, though AA is probably the worst.

The crew was very attentive and kept busy serving a variety of treats!

Offered vegetable curry when it was actually tofu which I don’t care for.

The flight was good the crew excellent…but take off delayed three hours!!!

Both mine and my husband's chairs were broken. Also it took 2 hours to get our bags after our flight which was wild.

Book cheap flights from the United Kingdom to California

Recent round-trip flight deals

9/13Fri
2 stops
33h 05mLGW-LAX
9/16Mon
nonstop
10h 25mLAX-LGW
$420
9/13Fri
2 stops
33h 05mLGW-LAX
9/20Fri
nonstop
10h 25mLAX-LGW
$437
9/1Sun
nonstopKLM
11h 00mLHR-SFO
9/22Sun
nonstopKLM
10h 19mSFO-LHR
$509
5/26Sun
nonstopBritish Airways
11h 05mLHR-SFO
2/26Wed
nonstopBritish Airways
10h 25mSFO-LHR
$539
6/13Thu
nonstopBritish Airways
11h 05mLHR-SFO
7/7Sun
nonstopBritish Airways
10h 30mSFO-LHR
$553
9/10Tue
1 stopSWISS
29h 20mLGW-SFO
9/23Mon
1 stopSWISS
14h 10mSFO-LGW
$613
9/14Sat
1 stopSWISS
29h 50mLGW-SFO
9/23Mon
1 stopSWISS
19h 30mSFO-LGW
$623
9/16Mon
nonstopLufthansa
11h 10mLHR-LAX
9/21Sat
1 stopLufthansa
15h 20mLAX-LHR
$628
6/17Mon
nonstopLufthansa
11h 00mLHR-SFO
6/25Tue
nonstopLufthansa
10h 25mSFO-LHR
$630
11/4Mon
1 stopKLM
14h 28mLHR-ONT
11/11Mon
1 stopKLM
14h 25mONT-LHR
$638

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Recent one-way flight deals

5/30Thu
1 stop
27h 55mLGW-LAX
$197
9/22Sun
nonstopNorse Atlantic UK
10h 40mLGW-LAS
$198
11/1Fri
nonstopLufthansa
11h 10mLHR-SFO
$549
11/1Fri
1 stopLufthansa
18h 05mLCY-SFO
$553
9/12Thu
nonstopFinnair
11h 05mLHR-SFO
$598
10/15Tue
1 stopSWISS
14h 50mLCY-LAX
$608
9/23Mon
1 stopBritish Airways
17h 05mLCY-SFO
$622
6/10Mon
nonstopFinnair
11h 05mLHR-SFO
$624
9/23Mon
1 stopSWISS
16h 10mLCY-LAX
$671
6/11Tue
2 stopsBritish Airways
20h 00mLCY-LAX
$699

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Last minute flights to California

Last minute flight, train and bus deals

5/21Tue
multi-stopAir Canada
18h 20mLHR-LAX
5/30Thu
multi-stopAir Canada
13h 50mLAX-LHR
$548
5/21Tue
multi-stopAir Canada
15h 36mLHR-LAX
5/29Wed
multi-stopAir Canada
14h 00mLAX-LHR
$550
5/17Fri
multi-stopBritish Airways
17h 05mLHR-SFO
5/20Mon
multi-stopBritish Airways
19h 50mSFO-LHR
$605
5/21Tue
nonstopLufthansa
11h 10mLHR-LAX
5/28Tue
nonstopLufthansa
10h 25mLAX-LHR
$606
5/17Fri
multi-stopBritish Airways
17h 05mLCY-SFO
5/20Mon
multi-stopBritish Airways
15h 45mSFO-LCY
$616
5/17Fri
nonstopLufthansa
11h 10mLHR-LAX
5/22Wed
nonstopLufthansa
10h 35mLAX-LHR
$629
5/20Mon
multi-stopSWISS
17h 15mLHR-LAX
5/27Mon
multi-stopSWISS
36h 40mLAX-LHR
$665
5/21Tue
multi-stopSWISS
29h 30mLGW-LAX
5/28Tue
multi-stopSWISS
14h 10mLAX-LGW
$668
5/21Tue
multi-stopKLM
23h 35mLCY-SFO
6/6Thu
multi-stopKLM
20h 40mSFO-LCY
$937
5/20Mon
multi-stopKLM
14h 10mLHR-LAX
5/27Mon
nonstopKLM
10h 20mLAX-LHR
$1,024

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