Originally Posted by
KLouis
Makes no difference: no First with any airline in Europe, only Business!
I think you are right. Fifth Freedom flights were always the way to go, but they are disappearing with airline failures / consolidations, longer range planes no longer requiring stop-overs and higher traffic making it feasible to fly two long haul routes direct.
SQ's MUC-MAN (with suites) disappeared in 2016, KAL ZRH-VIE in 2017 and Air China's VIE-BCN and ATH-MUC services disappeared this year.
OP, there is still the LATAM flight between
MAD and FRA which offers a fully-flat J cabin. But at a 2.5hr flight direct, is it worth it? Only you can decide.