Connect in the morning. The same one-hour layover misses 4% of the time at 9 am and 43% of the time at 8 pm.
Nonstops (seasonal or thin)
Nonstop details →Best connections, any airlines
Ranked by chance you reach St Louis on time. Total trip = scheduled departure to arrival, layover included (St Louis is 2 h ahead of San Francisco). Layovers up to 4 hours. Pick a connection for the details.
| United + Southwesttwo ticketsDetails → | SFO 21:30 → DTW 05:20UA 234 | 1h 40m Detroit | DTW 07:00 → STL 07:35 +1WN 1783 | 8h 05m | 94% | 92% |
| SouthwestDetails → | SFO 05:10 → DEN 08:40WN 1424 | 1h 25m Denver | DEN 10:05 → STL 13:20WN 1753 | 6h 10m | 96% | 92% |
| United + Southwesttwo ticketsDetails → | SFO 06:00 → LAS 07:46UA 582 | 3h 24m Las Vegas | LAS 11:10 → STL 16:25WN 2369 | 8h 25m | 100% | 90% |
| UnitedDetails → | SFO 00:50 → ORD 07:16UA 1850 | 3h 24m Chicago | ORD 10:40 → STL 12:11UA 1355 | 9h 21m | 100% | 89% |
| DeltaDetails → | SFO 05:50 → SLC 08:42DL 1331 | 59m Salt Lake City | SLC 09:41 → STL 13:36DL 2455 | 5h 46m | 96% | 88% |
| United + Alaskatwo ticketsDetails → | SFO 07:00 → SEA 09:22UA 1708 | 3h 44m Seattle | SEA 13:06 → STL 18:57AS 647 | 9h 57m | 100% | 88% |
| DeltaDetails → | SFO 22:55 → DTW 06:30DL 335 | 2h 20m Detroit | DTW 08:50 → STL 09:32 +1DL 2868 | 8h 37m | 98% | 86% |
| Frontier + Unitedtwo ticketsDetails → | SFO 06:00 → DEN 09:49F9 1230 | 3h 36m Denver | DEN 13:25 → STL 16:33UA 1639 | 8h 33m | 98% | 85% |
| Tight connection: often missed | ||||||
| AmericanDetails → | SFO 11:24 → MIA 20:05AA 2565 | 49m Miami | MIA 20:54 → STL 22:54AA 1594 | 9h 30m | 47% | 29% |
| AmericanDetails → | SFO 14:36 → ORD 21:26AA 2550 | 1h 34m Chicago | ORD 23:00 → STL 00:16 +1AA 1004 | 7h 40m | 51% | 27% |
| AmericanDetails → | SFO 11:24 → DFW 17:14AA 1849 | 47m Dallas-Fort Worth | DFW 18:01 → STL 19:52AA 2761 | 6h 28m | 30% | 16% |
Same layover, different day-part
How often the first flight arrives too late to connect (45 min minimum), for one-ticket layovers of 45–80 minutes.
Delays build through the day, so an afternoon first leg eats the layover. A short connection is fine early in the morning and a gamble later on.
Mixing airlines
The table above includes two-ticket connections (marked “two tickets”), held to the 90-minute minimum. One ticket only →
Regional partners count as the airline that sells them: SkyWest flying Delta Connection is one Delta ticket.
About this data: US DOT on-time records, Aug 2025 – Jul 2026, all US airlines; regional flights count under the airline that sells them. Schedules (which flights and connections exist, and their times) are as of Jun 6 – Jul 31, 2026; seasonal flights outside that window aren’t ranked. Rebuilt monthly. JSON