I have traveled on many different airlines and if I am asleep for the meal service they will allow me to have the meal when I awake. As a general rule I do not ask for them to keep me a meal but a meal has always been available when I ask.

Yesterday on the NZ LAX-AKL flight I slept as soon as we reached the flying altitude. It had been a long day and I did have a small bite to eat in the lounge (chicken curry). I woke up about five hours later and politely asked if I could have a meal to be told they do not keep the meals. They could offer me a snack out of the basket or cheese and crackers. Neither of them appealed to me as I really wanted some vegetables and protein so I said I would wait for the breakfast. They then served the breakfast and I just ate the omelette. I do not normally eat the breakfast on flights but I was quite hungry after 10 hours. I knew I was connecting to the AKL-SYD flight and thought I would get lunch but no, it was another breakfast - so another omelette. BTW - the omelettes are just as bad as I remembered which is why I do not eat the breakfasts on planes.

So on NZ do you need to specifically ask for the meal to be saved, or are they truly different to every other airline I have ever flown and if you are not awake for the meal service you are out of luck. (I was flying PE if that makes any difference to the answer.)