Originally Posted by
Adam Smith
What's missing from the wiki, which someone should add, is that some SDs do go by status beyond the official priority. Some SDs also go front to back, or in a horseshoe shape on widebodies, and only start to prioritize if they start to run out of things.
Hard to say exactly what this SD was doing.
My experience is on wide bodies they almost always take the meal orders by priority at least for SE and up. Unless you board later on in the process, then they just continue and come back to you later.
On narrow body it's still mostly by status though I have seen some SDs just go by row and then prioritize by status if they run out. This might be because it's a small cabin and may not make sense zig zagging 4 rows.