Hi!

I am visiting Israel for the first time this October. I looked on Vayama for best flights into TLV. I went with El Al. I was able to get flights for 975.00 round trip non stop out of JFK. We aren't flying J or F. I just didn't think it was worth the extra money since we will be asleep most of the flight. The "bed" seats on El Al in premium class sections don't seem to have direct aisle access like so many other flights do so that you have to climb over your horizontal neighbor to get to the asile if you aren't already on the aisle. The other option from JFK non stop was Delta (their fleet is even older than El Al's) but that was $500 more per person and I just didn't see the point in that for 2 more inches of leg room and wi-fi.

Vayama is showing direct flights from LAX to TLV and their prices seem reasonable (although maybe considerably higher for J or F class).

You might also want to try Yapta.

We considered a stopover in CDG but the flight times from TLV to CDG on the return were so quirky with the 5 hour difference that it was just a hassle to try and time that with our flight back to the US (it basically forced us to leave TLV in the middle of the night or stay an additional overnight in CDG on the way back to the US).

From LAX it looks like 777 is their equip of choice. They fly 747 out of JFK but that might be due to the larger Jewish population - 1.4 million more than LAX.