I am flying to Israel this summer and would like to know if anyone can recommend airlines with the full flat bed seats in business class. Will be originating trip from Pittsburgh. Looking for the lie flat seats; not the angled

British Airways

Brandessa,

As the previous poster mentioned, BA has flat beds on the business class. The seats are quite comfortable, going horizontally (not sloped) flat, though LHR-TLV flight time is only about 5-5.5hrs. BA has two flights daily. Outbound: one departing in the morning and another red-eye, inbound departing TLV is either early-ish morning (around 8am) or mid-afternoon.

The tricker part would be connecting from PIT, as there is no direct flight between PIT-LHR (or LGW for that matter, which makes it hard for us to visit my in-laws in Pittsburgh).

So if you want to fly flatbed, you'll need to do PIT-JFK (or whatever convenient gateway city)-LHR-TLV, which looks like a lot of transfer IMO.

When my folks go to Israel from Pittsburgh (several times a year as we also have family in Israel), they usually go PIT-EWR-TLV on Continental (good connection), PIT-JFK-TLV on Delta (codeshare with ElAl), or Pittsburgh-Toronto-TLV on Air Canada (their experience on this routes are not that great).

Unfortunately, I don't think either CO or DL/ElAl has flat bed seats.

Thank you both for your replies.

I agree the PIT-Toronto-TLV is not a great experience, as that is the route I took on my last trip. Flying non-stop from Toronto is a long haul and the reason I was looking for the more comfortable lie flat seats. I appreciate you taking the time to advise me of the connecting and shortened flight time from LHR to TLV. With the connection, the lie flat seat may not be as important to me.
I am a frequent flyer with Delta but have been told the ElAl flight has smaller seats and is generally "noiser". Any comments?

Have you flown on Continental's 777 before? While they are not flat, many people actually prefer them to many airline's angled flats. And one of the widest business class seats out there.

They fly EWR-TLV twice a day with relatively frequent connection from PIT. And you earn full DL MQM and Skymiles. You should seriously consider them.

Right now Continential is coming in by far with the cheapest fare and is certainly in the running.
British Airways takes me from Pit to O'Hare before going to London - too much back tracking. Delta has a really long layover in Atlanta, and my last flight on Air Canada was really on an old plane.
Although I checked the website www.flatsets.com and got mixed reviews on Continential's seats it looks like my best option at the moment.
Thanks for your suggestions