FWIW, QF's J product trans-tasman is very good, I don't know if I'd re-arrange my schedule to get on one of the 4-weekly LA flights when there are so many more options on QF (not just time/date-wise, but also route-wise, such as AKL-MEL and SYD-CHC, and probably ADL/BNE also). And I'm pretty sure I've heard that the LA catering on SYD-AKL (which is all we're talking about here according to the OP) isn't anything special, they save the good stuff for the transpac segment to SCL.