Image Credits: Bernt Rostad, Creative Commons 2.0
Published January 5, 2026 by

Nonstop Flights: Austin to/from San Francisco $140-$174 round-trip [January-May] – Southwest / United

[01/04/2026 @ 06:28 PM CT] Deal time-stamp.
[2026-01-06 15:26:00] This deal is still available, but the original date ranges may have shifted. We have updated the example date links in this post to reflect those changes. Expect prices to fluctuate by about +/- 10%.

Deals are usually valid 24 to 72 hours after posting, but can expire at any time (see time-stamp).

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To book: Use our updated link list.

Or book with these sites: Priceline, Skyscanner, Expedia, Travelocity, Tripadvisor, Orbitz, CheapTickets, Kayak.

Southwest and United have round-trip flights from Austin (AUS) to San Francisco (SFO) for $140-$174, NONSTOP. Flights January to May. Weekends available. Origin/Destination reversible.

United’s “Basic Economy” fares do not allow for a free carry-on bag. Only a personal item (like a small laptop bag) is free. Seats are randomly assigned for free prior to boarding.

The personal item size on United is smaller (9 x 10 x 17 inches) than Frontier or Spirit (8 x 13 x 18 inches).

If you use the United℠ Explorer Card, your first standard checked-bag for you and your companion is free, you get priority boarding, two United Club passes per year, and you get a 25% discount on inflight purchases on United-operated flights as a statement credit.

Use a card like the Southwest Rapid Rewards® Plus Credit Card to earn points towards a Companion Pass®. Companion Pass is the benefit that allows you to choose one person to fly with you, free of airline charges* every time you purchase or redeem points for a flight. *Companion Pass doesn’t cover taxes and fees.

It is common to find Southwest gift-cards for sale at a discount of about -$70 to -$20 off the redeemable value at Costco and Sam’s Club. Before you finalize your booking you should check to see if you can save more money by using a gift card.

Southwest Vacations usually has discounted package deals available that can save you more money. Package deals require than you book your flight + hotel together as a package, so it’s less flexible, but the package discount may be significantly cheaper than booking your flight and hotel separately.

You can usually save more money by booking your flight+hotel together as a package instead of separately.

Do a search on Tripadvisor to find guides, tours, restaurants, attractions, and cool things to do. It’s a good resource to use for planning your day-to-day itinerary while on vacation.

We post new flight deals often! You can check out our other deals by returning to the Front Page of our website: escapeatx.com (linked).

Here are some other offers that we think are worth mentioning. List updated 12/04/2025.

We now track coupon codes, discount codes, gift card discounts, and credit card offers that have a better value than their historical averages.

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Use the example date links on our website to pull up the fare.

San Francisco fares: [2026-01-06 15:26:00] This deal is still available, but the original date ranges may have shifted. We have updated the example date links in this post to reflect those changes. Expect prices to fluctuate by about +/- 10%.

 

When you are ready to book your flight or hotel, please use the links on our site to begin your booking process so we receive credit for the referral.

  • Tips: Rent a car for cheaper by using Priceline’s “Express Deals”. The rental car company will be hidden until after you purchase, but this allows those companies to undercut the published rate indirectly. You can remove low quality companies from those hidden results. The trick is to use the quality filter on their website to remove any rental car company with a review rating under 7.0 and then pick the deals that survive the filter. Note that the quality filter is only available on the desktop/web version of the Priceline website and isn’t available on the mobile version.
  • Tips: Use Tripadvisor to create a Hotel “short list”. First, plug in your dates and destination. Then select “Sort by Traveler Ranked”. Finally, select the “Traveler Ranking” filter to show “only 4* and up”. Use this resulting “short list” of hotels to find the cheapest one with a high ranking.
  • Tips: Hotel rates for Weekend dates are usually higher than the rates for Sunday through Thursday. Tripadvisor has a color-coded date calendar, red when the average hotel price for that day is more expensive, green for less expensive. You can use this to get an overview of what dates in the month are at a discount.
  • Tips: Different booking websites will often have differing routes, prices, and availability. Before you finalize your purchase, do a quick check on BookingBuddy, Skyscanner, and Kayak to see if any other site or airline is offering a better deal.

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Flights departing from a different city (our other websites):

Other Useful Links:

  • [Budget Travel] – list all the posts that deal with Budget Travel (filter out all the flight deal posts)

Ren P. Artemio

Ren P. Artemio

Ren is the Chief Director of Nap Times at Escape Houston, Escape ATX, Cheap DFW, and Escape Flights. He really likes researching airfare and the travel industry, especially when it means getting a cheap flight to anywhere (he's not picky).

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