Originally Posted by
corporate-wage-slave
The special meal would either not have been loaded at LCY (they are not replenished in RTM) or was handed out in error on the outbound service. It is indeed a particularly short flight, 191 miles, though not quite as short as LHR-JER (175 miles) but still I think it's important to raise a complaint, it's part of the advertised product, and in the case of Kosher it may there is nothing else to eat on board. It wouldn't exactly be unknown to have a 3 hour delay on the service either. Moreover it would be reasonable for someone planning their day to go from say a meeting in RTM to another in the City and want to use the time to eat, in order to time-fill their day, given that the OP can't just eat at every catering venue en route. But yes, it's difficult to make an existential complaint out of this, compared to LHR-HND......
I'm actually surprised how infrequently this happens - it does, but mostly the special meals do work through from the LON end. Out-stations can vary.
For me, the complaint would not be so much about a lack of available meal, but lack of notification. It is annoying if you had planned your day expecting to use the flight time to eat and suddenly can't. Especially if you had avoided eating earlier, or hadn't bought anything, expecting you'd be given something on the flight. If it was known several hours prior to the flight that the meal wasn't loaded, notifying in advance would give the opportunity for someone to make other plans.