Well, in any case when going to the US, avoid Canada when passing through. You need a visa. Or, well, since now you know, you can book a visa. But, it takes time and money if I remember well.
Our route passes through England, which has two ‘near’ Airports:
If you don’t check well, you can have a flight which lands at Gatwick and takes off at Heathrow XD. You have to verify if you have enough time in between to take a coach or car. It’s ~1 hour by car if I remember well.
Then the next flight is from London to JFK Airport in New York. Then to Pittsburgh.
Time breakdown:
Total .............................. 22h 16min
Add to it waiting time etc and it already feels super exhausting.
That’s the raw travel time, excluding waiting times.
I will also visit somewhere else after the Pycon.
For that, I checked several flights from Google Flights.
Spirit Airlines seems the best. However, the website just won’t let me reset passwords or fill in details. The website is very good-looking but not functional at all. To avoid at all costs.
I choose United Airlines. Basic economy is good, no food. They scare you into buying economy, don’t fall for it if you don’t need to.
The catch: No carry-on bag in basic economy and a checked bag costs $35 with pre-registration. Avoid bundled offers etc.
You can also skip pre-registering a seat to save some USDs.
Here are some useful terminologies:
A carry-on bag is a bag fitting in the overhead compartments. A backpack is one fitting under the front seat in front of you. A check-in bag is your normal luggage.
Note: Penning down my PyCon US experience, I hope it helps one day.