Thanks for splitting this out Greg. I always thought it should have its own thread.
I had an interesting thing happen this month. I called to order the LFLC meal for the meal flights. The aircraft were 757-737-737-737. When I called I was told I could only get a special meal on the 757. All other requests came back with "special meal not offered." Now I have had special meals on 737s before so I thought this was odd. Using the FT practice of hang up and try again, I did so and was told the same thing.
The next day I called the 1Kall desk to see if they knew why. That CSR told me that "all flights on 8120 configuration (737-300) or 8102 configuration (737-500) were designated as "no special meal." She hypothesized that it was on planes with no ovens. I told her that not all 737s are ex-shuttle planes and do have ovens.
Concerned that this may be leading to no special meals offered at all, I wrote to 1kvoice expressing my concern that this may be the next round of cutbacks since there had been so many and I received a response:
"I have researched this issue and found that we have not discontinued our special meal service. There is a requirement that the meal request be made more than 24 hours in advance. The problems you encounter are not a result of cutbacks. I understand your frustration with attempting to get an answer regarding this issue. Your disappointment nonetheless is understood and your comments will help us with future meal planning. While I can't undo the circumstances you experienced, please accept a regional upgrade as a gesture of our concern. The upgrade will be credited to your Mileage Plus account with 15 business days."
Of course, I wrote back and advised that I requested the special meal 4 days in advance, but have not heard back. Frankly the CR1 was a surprise and a responsible solution since I used a CR1 to upgrade to those meals flights.
The LFLC meal OAK-DEN 757 (breakfast) was
3 slices of french toast (with syrup)
2 slices ham
1 small bowl of fruit
1 packaged multi-grain bagel.