We're planning the trip of a life time and want to fly business class from New York to Rome. Ideally it will be a direct flight and we need advice about the most comfortable seats for the journey. We would also consider flying direct to another city (London? Paris?) and catching a puddle jumper. Any thoughts are appreciated.

Most people believe that BA has the best Business Class seats but you will need to go through London. They also have some of the best airline lounges.

Depending on the time of year, there are some nonstop flights to Rome. What airline frequent-flier program do you belong to? Or are these Amex miles? Either way, you'll be limited to the airlines you can choose from, and it's kind of silly for us to recommend an airline you can't use.

Duh ... I totally missed the boat. I really need to learn to read more carefully. You're not using miles. OK. In that case, I'd go with Delta, which has nonstop service. They fly an Airbus on that route, so I think you'll be comfortable. Alitalia has 777s on that route, and I like those planes as well, even if Alitalia itself isn't so great.

If you want to see another city outside Italy, then not flying nonstop would be a serious consideration. But you could expand your search to Lufthansa. I hate Charles De Gaulle airport, but I like Air France, so I'm still hesitant to recommend connecting through Paris. Strikes at BA make me a little leery of going with them if you are traveling this summer, but hopefully they will be over by the fall.

October is a nice time to be in Rome.

To Rome, you should look to fly non-stop. Are there better seats on BA or Virgin? Yes. But the flight from London to Rome will be 2-1/2 hours and will be in a glorified coach seat, and you would have to deal with the extra connection. I like BA and would still take the non-stop. If you really want flat-bed seats and are willing to take a connection for them, then I would fly Swiss, via Zurich, on the new A330.

Of the non-stop options (Continental, Delta, Alitalia, and AA), it looks like Delta uses their A330 and this would probably be the best seat. The others are, however, competitive (though Alitalia sucks at service, so avoid them). If Delta flies this on a 767, then it loses any advantage.

Delta JFK-FCO is indeed on an A330.