Originally Posted by 24left

Why would you assume the cabin would be full of upgrades? AC does not hand them out like candy and people who upgrade are either using earned upgrade credits, or paid for a LMU - Last Minute Upgrade - at check in, or did a Bid Upgrade.

You may or may not see a deadheading pilot as they are entitled to the J cabin as part of their contract.

And BTW, AC FT has various threads discussing meals in various cabins for Domestic/Transborder and International Meals

For eg (and most recent page)

Summary of North America Executive class meal service


As for pre-ordering meals, quite a number of us here have been vocal for years (ok, maybe a rant here and there) about why we can pre-order on SQ or BA or even AA. I recall the answer once was that it was tested. Vague enough for me to assume AC logistics and/or their caterer could not handle it or maybe AC was not interested.