Originally Posted by
Ace71
We did not order a special meal, more a special requirement of no beef meal...
Originally Posted by
Ace71
Apologies I made the request/choice over a month ago and did not realise that a no beef meal is regarded as a special meal.
I'm sorry, but this makes no sense at all. Any meal requested in advance is (reasonably enough) a special meal. If you have ordered a special meal, it is assumed to be because you need that special meal for medical or religious reasons, and so you can't then ask for something else instead. This is the normal expectation on any airline.
CX has no system in place to allow passengers to select from the normal menu options in advance of the flight. It is true that some airlines (e.g. AA) offer that choice on some flights, but if CX did, they would have first told you what the menu options are before allowing you to choose one. They did not, and they do not. A 'no beef' meal was quite reasonably interpreted as a non-veg Hindu meal (special meal code HNML).