Each week, my Meal of the Week feature examines an airline meal from my travels over the years. This may be a meal from earlier in the week or it may be a meal served over a decade ago.
Earlier today I wrote about my domestic flight on Air France from Paris to Mulhouse. Since the difference in service between an Air France and Lufthansa domestic flight in business class is so stark, I offer a comparison for this week’s Meal of the Week.
My Air France flight from Paris (CDG) to Mulhouse/Basel (BSL) was 250 miles. My Lufthansa flight from Frankfurt (FRA) to Munich (MUC) was 186 miles.
Lufthansa
On Lufthansa, I received a platter containing several items. The tray included four courses.
First, a chicken liver pate with orange sauce and cole slaw.
Second, potato salad with mini shrimp and chives.
Third, cheese with preserves.
Finally, a tapioca cream dessert.
Unlimited hot bread was also offered.
> Read More: Full Lunch on 35-Minute Lufthansa Flight
Air France
Now compare that to my Air France flight, where I was supposedly flying business class.
The only thing served onboard was a choice of beverage in a plastic glass and a small packet of biscuits.
Apples vs. Apples
Just so you don’t think I am making an unfair comparison of mainline versus regional, let’s go one step further. I’m going to add a Frankfurt to Basel flight to the mix. While technically not a domestic flight, the airport is called Basel-Mulhouse-Freiburg airport and the German border is mere minutes from the airport. The BSL-FRA flight is 175 miles, nearly 1/3 less than the 250-mile Air France flight. It is also operated by a regional jet.
So what was served on that flight from Basel to Frankfurt? A nice breakfast with real dishes and glasses.
Hot bread cold cuts, cheese, and grapes…a perfect European breakfast.
Beverages in real glasses and cups as well.
CONCLUSION
Air France is so incredible in so many ways. My top two airline meals of 2018 were on Air France. But when it comes to shorthaul and domestic flights, Lufthansa easily beats Air France.
Wow, that is surprising, I had to take a last minute flight back in September from Stuttgart to Paris and business HOP! was the only option available. Since it was such a short flight and I hadn’t planned ahead to take it I had zero expectations. I was amazed we had full cold meal catering with a printed menu, and the food quality was excellent. We were served Guinea Fowl over some kind of Quinoa mixture, cheese, bread and a selection of really excellent little petit four type desserts. Our flight was 305 miles, so perhaps AF has a 300 mile cutoff or something along those lines?
I will only fly Lufthansa. They have always met my expectations, economy, premium economy. and business. I’ve done all three. They’re a great airline, bar none!
Air France doesn’t have business class on domestic flights, so you got the economy class service. If you are connecting on a business class or first class ticket you might have lounge access and other ground services but onboard it will be standard economy class service.
I have no doubt that short haul catering is better on LH vs AF but this report is not comparing apples with apples as Hop! is AF’s discount brand.
Ohh, ok I didn’t see the part about domestic, as in within France. Interesting they do a full meal service on a flight almost as short just because it goes over a border.
Hey Matthew, your flight is on HOP! unfortunately, and does not feature the same meal service as on mainline AF flights. On the really short intra-Europe AF flights in J, I’ve received a tray of great food (this was on an A318).
I suppose using selective data, anyone can prove their point. Comparing HOP! to Lufthansa Cityline would make more sense. And as others have pointed out, AF doesn’t offer business class on domestic flights…
In any case, here are a couple of inter-European reviews of Air France, to see what Air France really offers.
https://knightofmalta.net/2018/02/28/air-france-business-class-airbus-a-320-paris-roissy-to-bucharest-otopeni/
https://knightofmalta.net/2019/01/05/air-france-business-class-airbus-a-319-zurich-to-paris-cdg-2/
Did you see the screenshot of my itinerary above? The point of this article was that Air France “sold” it to me as business class…
Which suggests they consider Basel a foreign destination?
Either way, my point that comparing HOP! directly to Lufthansa doesn’t make sense. As I said, better to compare it to Lufthansa Cityline.
Which I also did in comparing the BSL-FRA flight.
So it’s a domestic flight vs an inter-European flight?
Luftansa is stingy…. I took the flight from Munich to Luxembourg for an hour in 2018. Luftansa treated me nothing…
I took KLM, Netherlands to Luxembourg for 40mims in 2018 too.. They treated a cup of water and a small packet of biscuit as well…
For the suggestion, some passengers there maybe conneting flight with Luftansa or insufficient time to get the meal… So that to cover a bit., l want Lufthansa treat the same to other airlines .
Flew Lufthansa TLV-FRA in economy, and recived a better meal than I have ever had on a US carrier, despite it being only a 4 hour flight. I flew ORD-SFO on AA and got a bag of pretzels. Almost as good as my SWISS meal on the way there, with high quality dishes and several courses.
Matthew, unfortunately the review has a broken logic, as you’re comparing J to Y. The only real question is why the leg CDG-BSL is shown as confirmed in Business. Some kind of a glitch. I may assume (just speculations) it appeared as business because you had TATL in business connecting onto CDG-BSL all the legs were showing as confirmed in business (as they were ticketed on a business fare from departure to destination). Add the worst in the industry IT that AFKL’s got and here we go.
AF doesn’t offer Affairs from Paris to Mulhouse/Basel, only economy class. Period. Try to buy a ticket from CDG to BSL. You got a standard economy service for metropolitan France flights (which is to say not bad, as you normally get decent quality snack and a wide variety of drinks, incl. alcohol and Perrier).
Still it’s disappointing AF doesn’t offer business or some kind of economy+ on domestic flights. The things is, yes, those flights are all short, but they can get quite expensive closer to departure. I paid myself 250-350 EUR for flights from Orly to various destinations. It would be nice to have a good cold plate served when you pay 250-350 EUR for a 1 hour flight.