Route brief · LAX → SHA
Los Angeles → Shanghai
$550
−32% vs typical
seasonal median $805 · difference $255
Oct 16 – Nov 7 · 22 nights
Cathay Pacific1 stop
- Usual monthly lows
- $786–$809
- Board rank
- Stronger than 81%
- Route sample
- 5 observed months
Cached fare — the booking search re-prices live before you pay.
Destination briefSHAShanghaiThe Bund on one bank, a science-fiction skyline on the other — and a visa-free transit window worth checking.Best windowMar–May · Sep–NovAirportsPudong (PVG) · Hongqiao (SHA)All routes into ShanghaiWhen this route gets cheap.
Cached-fare history: across 5 months, Oct is the cheapest for LA → SHA. Best time to be there: Mar–May · Sep–Nov.
Fares bottom out in October around $550 and peak in February near $929 — a $379 spread across the 5 months we track. The cheapest itinerary we are tracking makes one stop and takes about 18.5 hours outbound, on a 22-night trip — ticketed under Cathay Pacific, which on a connecting fare need not operate every leg. At $550 for 10,434 km each way, that works out to about $26 per 1,000 km flown. That is well under the $44 that long-haul fares on this board typically run. Across the 29 departure cities we track at a similar distance from Shanghai, this fare ranks 5th — 14% above the $482 from Istanbul. That puts it in the cheaper half of the 48 routes of similar length we watch out of Los Angeles, where the middle fare is $687.
The 5 days we hold a cached fare for
Tap a date → live search
The median cached fare across this calendar is 9% higher than when tracking began on Aug 8 — $804 then versus $874 now, across 5 recorded snapshots. This is a calendar-level trend, so an individual deal above can be lower. The lowest single day we have seen here is $473, on Oct 13.
These are the only days we have a cached price for on this route so far — not the only days it flies. The search above covers any date.
Cheapest in Oct · around $550
32% below the $805 typical fare
Cheapest round-trip fare found per month · Los Angeles → Shanghai · cached-price history
Route facts
- Airports
- LAX · Burbank (BUR) · Long Beach (LGB) ↔ Pudong (PVG) · Hongqiao (SHA)
- Flight time
- ~18.5 hours outbound
- Distance
- ~10,434 km each way
- Typical price
- $805 round-trip (seasonal median)
- Airlines on the board
- Cathay Pacific
- Itineraries
- Connections on current fares
- Best months to visit
- Mar–May · Sep–Nov
LA → SHA, answered.
Is $550 a good price for Los Angeles to Shanghai?
Yes — the seasonal median for this route is around $805 round-trip. At $550 you're 32% below that, saving about $255, which we rate great for this route.
What is the cheapest month to fly from Los Angeles to Shanghai?
Across 5 months of cached-fare history, Oct comes out cheapest on this route. The best months to actually be in Shanghai are Mar–May · Sep–Nov — when those overlap, that's your window.
How far in advance should I book LA → Shanghai?
We do not publish a number for this, because we cannot measure it yet. Answering it honestly means watching the same departure date on this route over many weeks as it approaches, and that archive is still filling up — so any "book N days ahead" figure here would be borrowed from somewhere else rather than measured. What we can measure is which month is cheap: across 5 months of cached fares, Oct comes out lowest on this route. See /guides/what-moves-a-flight-price/ for what does move a fare.
Are there nonstop flights from Los Angeles to Shanghai?
The current cheapest fares involve a connection, ticketed under Cathay Pacific. Nonstop options exist on many dates at higher prices — check the live search for your exact dates.
Are these prices guaranteed?
No — these are cached fares found on real searches (this one on September 1). Airlines reprice constantly, so the booking search re-checks the live price before you pay. Fresher finds are far more likely to still be available.
Next step
Sleeping in Shanghai?
Lock the flight first — then compare stays for Oct 16 – Nov 7 · 22 nights.
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Missed it?
Cached fares expire. This route has a feed of its own — follow it and the next LA → SHA drop reaches you as soon as we find it.
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