Originally Posted by
whitespace
Unlike BA, it’s not a huge problem for them to pivot from the special meal to the menu option. Just ask them what the special meal is when you are ordering your first drink.
When I used to order a special meal to avoid the chicken sausage fest on the morning flights, we were once delayed beyond "breakfast" time and they recatered the flight for lunch. They carried over my special meal request. Now we had a lunch menu, I asked the crew to switch away from my special meal. They obliged but they took orders from the other passengers first and I had to have whatever was leftover. So it's not a sure thing to order off the main menu if you have a special meal.