sluggoaafa

The pax who pre-order the Asian Vegetarian meal are very pleased with the option. I've served it several times and each time it's pre-ordered, I (almost) hope the pax doesn't show so I can try it as it looks and smells very appetizing.

As others have stated, AA requires any pre-ordered meal to be made at least 24hrs before scheduled departure. Best practice is to ensure you use the AA.COM website and not a third party website (Expedia, Travelocity, etc) as they often do not talk properly to AAs reservation...even when there is an option to 'pre-select' a meal on third party sites, it often doesn't translate over to the AA Sabre system.

FAs will know if you have pre-ordered a meal as it will be both on the Tablet as well as the Final Paperwork which is received prior to door closing. So if you say that you have pre-ordered a special meal, and the FA says it's not listed on our paperwork/tablet, 98% of the time, it was either ordered within 24hrs of departure so it doesn't get catered, or the reservation was done via a third party website. (very few times I have received a special meal when someone wasn't actually listed for the flight, but was re-accommodated from another flight)
Also, many frequent travelers have learned that if their plans change (changing to a different flight), and they pre-ordered a meal, often times that pre-selected meal doesn't get transferred to the new flight.