Better one-way ticket? Best airport from Germany to the US?

where in Germany are you going to study? A cheap flight into one city isn't so cheap if you have to spend more to get to the other side of the country. Roundtrip is generally cheaper, but you just have to do the math. If you have access to some of the budget airlines you might luck out booking one way. But fares go up and down all the time so there is no easy way to determine this.

Frankfurt-am-Main (FRA) is usually the gateway with the most direct flights from the US.

Frankfurt is the best airport in Germany due to volume, location, and all the airlines flying to the most destinations. How long is your semester? Round trip is usually cheaper than 2 one-ways.

I believe the OP is coming from Germany to the US to study. @sandparker, the student exchange program should be giving you information on what sort of documents, if any, you need in order to study and stay for 5 months in the US. You may need a round trip ticket as evidence that you do not intend to permanently stay in the US. Again, the exchange program should be giving you advice on that. You don’t mention where in Pennsylvania you will be studying. Generally speaking, Pittsburgh is the largest city in the west of the state and Philadelphia the largest in the east. Best wishes for a wonderful experience.

Berlin or Frankfurt or Munich. But it is best to buy it roundtrip

Google bought the ITA search engine a few years ago. It's flexible, but might not include some of the discount airlines.
http://matrix.itasoftware.com/
Try the "Help" sign in the upper right-hand corner for detailed searches.

Condor airlines flies nonstop to Pittsburgh from Frankfurt on Mondays and Fridays in August. They do not fly there in Dec, but they flight share with Lufthansa and could possibly do a r/t ticket with them. Condor is inexpensive and reliable, and I'm pretty sure that a one way ticket is the same price as the same leg of a round trip ticket.

Just be aware that it is 500 km between Philadelphia and Pittsburgh, with Pennsylvania State University in the middle.

If you tell us where in Germany you live, and where in Pennsylvania you are studying, we can give advice. Otherwise we're just guessing.

While Frankfurt and Munich have the most flights to the US, they may or may not be cheaper than a flight from a smaller German airport. Similarly, Philadelphia and Pittsburgh are the largest airports in Pennsylvania, but they may not be cheaper.

Don't forget ALL costs - time, money, hassle. If you take a "cheap" flight that requires a train at each end, don't forget to add the extra time and money for those train rides, as well as the hassle (particularly in the US, since you're not familiar with how things work).

Since you haven't been to the US, you don't yet realize just how poor the public transport is. For instance, if you land in Philadelphia and have to get somewhere else in Pennsylvania, there may be a train, there may be a bus, or you may need to get there in a car. Yes, there are large parts of the state that are not served by ANY public transportation! So, it's not enough to just get to "Pennsylvania" - you could be stranded at the airport, or only be able to get to a town many miles away from your university.

So, give us details and we can make sure you get where you need to go.

I would definitely ask study abroad counselor or the equivalent in Germany about immigration policies. With the crackdown on immigration, you may need to have a roundtrip ticket when you enter the US.

As a general rule, prices go down as the trip gets longer. Take 24-30 hrs & you can save a lot.

Spend a lot of time on the internet. You will probably have to slog thru lots of combinations.

Making it worse, you can often buy a ticket, say, on Delta thru Air France for less than directly from Delta. There are two big airline cabals that's share picketing, Star Alliance (United, Lufthansa & others) and the other one whose name I can't remember, but it centers on Delta, KLM, Air France.

Add CDG (Paris), AMS (Amsterdam) & Manchester, UK to your list.

Then you have to deal with the hub & spoke system. Airlines have "hub" airports where international flights land & then you change p/ans to domestic network that branches out from the hub (the spokes). Sometimes it is cheaper to fly hub to hub & make a separate booking for the spoke trip. This can get really weird-- several times we found our cheapest fare to EU was to fly 800 miles WEST on Delta (our closest airport is a Delta hub) and then take United from a United hub to the EU. So, when using an internet booking service, make sure they show "mixed" itineraries which look at combinations of the two cabals.

Very likely your best bet is Icelandair, an independent airline that is not part of either cabal & is often unlisted by internet booking services. Southwest & Frontier are domestic USA independents with similar problems, as are others serving the east coast area.

As a general rule, a one-way flight trans-Atlantic will cost more (often far more) than a round trip. Why? One of the mysteries of life.

No Internet site covers all possible combinations but the closest, in my opinion, is as you mentioned, matrix.itasoftware.com which is run by Google for the travel industry. It doesn't sell tickets but you can see where to look. Skyscanner is great in Europe but not superior trans-Atlantic.

It will be an exercise in frustration to try to sort out all the legs of your itinerary yourself. Plug in your departure and destination, and see the combinations. Maybe experiment with several search functions. Prices will vary considerably depending on the time of year you are travelling.

You could consider flying into one city and home from another, but you must a multi-destination search function for your itinerary. These are not sets of one-way tickets.

Hey Guys, I found good flight route over Detroit. The thing is how much time should I plan in for a layover in Detroit, so that my bags will come with me? How many hours are good in your experience? I found a flight with a layover of 1:53 is that too few?

The process at all U.S. airports when you arrive from Europe is that you go through immigration and customs even if you have a connecting flight afterwards. This usually involves picking up your luggage and dropping it off again (this process is different from Europe, where you only go through customs at your final destination, if you are travelling on one ticket).
So (without knowing the specific airport) my gut feeling is that this would be a rather tight connection.

There is no cheapest airport, no cheapest day, only the cheapest ticket. It takes time to find the cheapest ticket. It helps to be flexible with days and airports. Sometimes you find cheapest ticket when you go to more distant airport and stay overnight and it's still cheaper than from your intended city. But of course it must be worth the hassle to do it. Sometimes Iceland Air is the cheapest with change in Reykjavik. We only know you want to go from Germany to Pennsylvania. That's not enough information for anybody who would be willing to help you. So exactly from where to where you want to go? It is time consuming to find the cheapest ticket, maybe you will find volunteer on this Forum, otherwise you have to do it yourself or pay travel agent. You are in Germany so you know airports in Germany where is easy for you to get. Commercial airports in Pennsylvania are here:
https://uncoveringpa.com/pennsylvania-airports .

I have no doubt that 1 hour 53 minutes is a legal connection. Just check that there will be later flights to your final destination, so if there should be a delay, they can get you on a later flight. That should not be a problem from Detroit, as it is a major hub for Delta/KLM.

For instance, If you were going from Frankfurt to State College, Pennsylvania (Pennsylvania State University). There is a 10:55 flight to Detroit, arriving at 14:15, connecting to a flight to State College at 16:15, arriving at 17:35 (2 hour layover). There is also a flight at 17:54, arriving at 19:09, and a flight at 22:25, arriving at 23:43.

This generally applies to other large Pennsylvania airports, like Pittsburgh and Philadelphia.

If you book a trip all the way to your destination, the airline will give you flights with OK connection times.