I have had three fails out of three requests for my meal to be served later in the flight this year Each time (and after the first time I was very specific with the request) they ended up telling me they had heated the meal so were unable to serve it to me and a flight attendant ate the meal so the meal would not go to waste. Each time they apologized profusely. Offered me another choice of food I do not eat. Cheese plates with grapes are an edible option. The salad side dishes the first two times were fine but the most recent salad was not good and why an airline would choose to serve prawns when it is so easy to get a bad prawn boggles my mind.

My most recent trip I did not even bother asking for my meal to be served later. I had the cheese plate as my snack - those packs of chips and other highly processed foods are a terrible choice for mid flight snacks. It is good to see the return of fresh fruit as a snack. Pre-COVID United had much better options for mid flight snacks.

Pre-COVID I never had an issue with getting the meal served later - it just came with a warning that I would need to wait 20 minutes for the meal to be heated.

Good luck with the request and please report back that you were successful and that it did not end up eaten by a flight attendant.