Originally Posted by lhrsfo

Lots of questions here, but all with fairly easy answers

On the question of through baggage, almost all airlines will check baggage through to the final destination when the flight is all on the same ticket and there are no overnight layovers. Pretty well any ticket you get from LAX to Paris in business class will offer this, unless you use a very obscure route to buy the ticket. If it's all on one airline or one alliance there will be no question of that - so baggage should not be a concern.

On the question of flying to the wrong place to then get a budget flight or train to Paris - don't! Even in business class, you will be tired and disorientated when you land and you don't want to be schlepping bags around trying to make connections. Plus, as that won't be on the same ticket, if your inbound from LAX is late, you will lose the onward connection with no recompense. Finally, that part will undo all the good you have expensively purchased for the nice business class seat.

Third, if you do decide to connect somewhere, I would strongly recommend that you do it either on the West Coast or in Europe. You want to maximise your time on the long haul (where the seat, service and sleep are all better) and minimise your time on the short haul where it's all worse (you should be aware that in the US you will be put in "First" class which offers a Premium Economy seat with bad service and often no food, whereas in Europe you will be put in a regular seat but with the middle one blocked but you will be offered decent food).

So: do your research, find your preferred seat, and go for it.