Number one, it is a matter of taste. While the business class airline meals were pretty good, my experience you could very much tell that they were not freshly prepared. Neither one did great with the veggies, but the meat entrees have been consistenly better on Amtrak. As to selection, it was somewhat greater than Amtrak's.Can you explain what precisely you believe is better about Amtrak dining car food compared to international first class airline food? Because in my experience international first class food vastly exceeds the taste, quality, selection, and preparation of today's Amtrak meals.I've been lucky enough to fly international business and fly "transcontinental" first class in a three-class flight, which is touted as equivalent to international first. While the meals were good considering how they were prepared, and better than I expected, and were certainly not the mystery entrees that were that hallmark of the old coach meals, not one of them was as good as a mediocre dining car meal. The only dining car meal they beat was the emergency beef stew and rice.
Some airlines still serve caviar (I'd be happy to give you mine) along with unlimited Dom or Krug on premium routes, but it's becoming rarer over time.Maybe not the meals, which are still reheated, but when I flew first class international there was caviar and Dom Perignon. Those would have been had to screw up.
Maybe it was the airline, my miles were all on American and all the flights international business (not first) class flights were on American, as was the JFK-LAX first class on a three-class transcon flight just this past March.
In any case, the American did a good job, but it wasn't particularly impressive. I did the upgrades for the seats, not the food.
The meal while traveling experience that WAS impressive was VIA's Canadian. Beat both American and Amtrak by miles. And maybe my experience on American's JFK-LAX transcon was colored by that, as that was the return leg when the Canadian had been the outbound. I did go out of the way to experience their transcon First, as I routed JFK-LAX-SEA to do it, instead of just going JFK-SEA in regular domestic First. I wanted to be impressed.
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