While I may or may not agree with the rest of the list of priorities mentioned by The Cow later in his response, this pretty much nails it:
Originally Posted by
canadiancow
So to answer your question "Why can't Air Canada offer pre-order of meals?"
1. They already offer it
2. They suck at it
Just like the garlic bread that didn't get loaded on my Monday flight from YVR-ICN, AC could (and does) offer a variety of services that they apparently have no ability to deliver consistently.
The list is long. But just as clearly, they seem to have no willingness to invest the critical amounts of time or effort it takes to get consistent.
So with that in mind I agree that offering yet another service choice will simply fail due to inconsistent execution.
Maybe it's the culture, maybe it's a management issue, but I don't realistically see much hope for anything other than incremental improvements in things that benefit the company first, and the passenger maybe.