San Francisco → London flights
Median fares on San Francisco–London sit at $311, with the bottom quartile at $284; booking when fares are near that lower band is your clearest edge.
SFO–LHR: Target $284–$311 and watch for dips toward $274
Key takeaways
- Median fare is $311, based on 30 daily snapshots of the cheapest cached fares on this route.
- The bottom quartile (p25) is $284 — fares at or below this level represent genuinely good value worth acting on quickly.
- The spread is 38% ($274 low to $377 high), meaning the difference between a patient, well-timed booking and a rushed one is roughly $100.
- The $274 floor appeared in the dataset but is not guaranteed to recur; treat anything under $290 as a strong signal to book.
- The $367 p75 threshold is your warning line — if fares are already above this, waiting for a dip rather than booking immediately is reasonable.
30-day price trend
See full numbers and stats on the SFO → LHR price history page.
The full picture
San Francisco to London is one of the most competitive transatlantic routes, and the 30-day fare snapshot reflects that competitiveness — but also real volatility. The $103 gap between the observed low ($274) and high ($377) tells you this is not a stable, commodity-priced route. A 38% spread is meaningful: it suggests fare levels shift enough that timing your purchase genuinely matters, and that holding out for sub-$290 fares is a defensible strategy rather than wishful thinking. The interquartile range — $284 to $367 — is your realistic working range; most shoppers who booked during this window landed somewhere in there.
On booking horizon: transatlantic routes to London from the US West Coast historically see their sharpest discounting in the 6–10 week window before departure, when carriers release unsold inventory at reduced prices to fill seats. That said, this dataset captures fare snapshots rather than booking-lead-time data directly, so we can't pinpoint an exact sweet spot from these numbers alone. What we can say is that fares at the low end of this dataset ($274–$284) are not the default — they're outliers worth jumping on. If you're watching this route and see a fare in the bottom quartile, the evidence here suggests that waiting for further softening is a gamble with a $100 downside.
No dominant carrier pattern is visible from this dataset, so we're not in a position to recommend one airline over another on price grounds. One honest caveat: 30 snapshots capture a single rolling month of fare availability, not a full seasonal cycle. Fares on SFO–LHR can shift substantially around school holidays, UK bank holidays, and peak summer season — context this dataset doesn't cover. Use these figures as a calibration tool, not a guarantee.
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AI-authored from this route's 30-day price index. Article last regenerated Aug 1, 2026. Fares shift continuously — confirm at booking.