Originally Posted by Paulo
Not sure if longer flights are any better in terms of catering.
The cut off point for AF intra-European flights in C used to be 1h40mn. Above that, you had a hot meal. Now, for the last eighteen months or so, the cut off point has been raised to 2h55. For flights above 2h55 (ATH, IST, Russia ?), you get a hot meal, an amenity kit, and a selection of wines served on long-haul flights, served from real size bottles, not the dreadful generic
vins de pays or
vins de cépage, Merlot, Chardonnay, whatever . Nevertheless, my experience is that on flights to ATH, meals are not as good as they used to be.
And
digestifs have yet to reappear
Having flown to several European destinations in C on both BA and AF (it's been almost a year since I have flown LH), I prefer BA catering (provided GG is operational ...) for flights shorter than 3hrs. For flights to and from ATH, I definitely prefer AF catering.
Regarding the issue of hot bread, it may be (I may be mistaken) that French passengers are more interested in having good bread than having any type of bread warmed, either on board or in a restaurant. And the type of butter is also important ...