Airlines from So Cal to Portugal

I think you have to be a bit more detailed with your question.

There are no nonstop flights, so that eliminates that option. Other that, what is
important to you? Fare, comfort, lounges, connection options? Are you a member
of a specific airline alliance and are miles important to you? Will you be booking
with miles or paying cash?

A little more info on your preferences will allow others to give you more specific
thoughts.

OK - I will not be using points - so standard purchase.

I saw some recommendations for airlines but they were from 2019 so I wanted to see if anyone had flown more recently.

I would like to fly premium economy or equivalent - I am not concerned with lounges - just reliability and minimal bs.

I try to fly out of Santa Ana for the convenience and ease of transportation for arrival and departure. The check in lines are far shorter than LAX too. I find that Delta has good schedule choices, but you have to make a US connection for the overseas flight (Salt Lake City, Atlanta or Dallas). One stop flights with adequate layovers are possible. I didn't like the hassle of 2 stops, which are likely when flying back out of Porto (Lisbon too?).

I live in LA proper, and I’m actually researching a trip to Portugal myself for march. Right now I’ve been scouting out a flight thru Level (LAX to BCN) with a short Vueling flight (BCN to LIS), premium economy for ~$1200. I just got back from a Barcelona trip in October using Level, and I was completely satisfied with the service and flight quality for being a budget line. In fact, for the flight over to BCN we actually had lay flat capsule seats, like business class lite. I don’t know if this was a fluke or what, but I was completely surprised to have that for only paying $1,100 for premium economy. The flight from BcN back to LAX didn’t have the same lay flat seats, but they were still a notch up from regular economy.

Hey !! I did not research .. but was just on the TAP website . They touted a new LA to Portugal flight starting late spring 25 . You may want to check it out !

That is great news. I had a ticket purchased with KLM and my credit card got flagged so the I didn't get the flight. My trip is in June so I can wait a bit to get my flight.