I had a short-notice trip to the Pacific last month. I duly received the preorder link for my morning DEN-SFO flight (nothing for the SFO-NRT leg). I believe I ordered whatever they had with eggs but when I boarded, the flight attendant told me I had a special order meal of granola. I hadn't requested a special meal and it wasn't indicated anywhere on my reservation that I could find. As it turned out the attendant was able to get me an extra egg meal so I didn't have to do the granola.
I ended up with a similar situation on the SFO-NRT leg, being told I had a special low-cal meal ordered. This time there were no extras. I figured this a sign from above for putting on a few pounds last year and realized I could make up for it at the NH club in NRT.
The scenario repeated on my return HND-HNL (this time on NH) and then HNL-DEN. I was able to talk to a UA agent during the long layover in HNL and found out there WAS a special meal code on my reservation, apparently placed by my travel agency, but it wasn't visible anywhere on my reservation using the website or app and it was too late to remove the code for my HNL-DEN flight.
For everyone complaining about the UA Polaris food, the low cal meals on NH were nothing to write home about either. Basically poached chicken with steamed vegetables. On one leg, I got a dessert: a tea-flavored gelatin.
I made up for it in the NH lounges at NRT and HND and again during the long layover in HNL (no, I didn't go to the UC, I had my family pick me up and we had good local food).