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Thanks everyone for your replies - glad to see I'm not the only one who thinks that a single tray meal service is inappropriate on a 15.5 hour flight. My concern was much more about serving all courses at once than about the quantity of food. I like the way UA deals with late night Australia flights (offering a light entree choice - like soup, as well as a single tray Express Dine option) - so that people who want a longer meal can enjoy the experience. Another way some people dine on the UA flights is to just munch on the appetizer, salad, and bread before sleeping. There was no light entree option on this flight - and the tiny salad plate wouldn't be satisfying.

lucky7876coins, as far as the mid flight snack, it was not served by a cart, but F/As offered it to whoever was awake at a few different intervals (i.e. my neighbor was served the sandwiches about an hour after me). I have no idea if the Cinema Snack was ever served, but I'm not going to accuse the crew of not serving it because I was sleeping for most of the second half of the flight.

A few other observations I forgot -

1) Assorted chocolates were offered at the end of the meal service (not sure what brand they were). UA did away with Godivas a while ago. I'd personally prefer a coffee/tea service to a chocolate service (IMHO, the best way to beat jet lag on this flight is to drink coffee after dinner to help you defer sleeping til it's evening at the destination)

2) I was never addressed by name. On UA, you are addressed by name when you make your main meal beverage order, and when your main meal entree choice is selected. On SQ, you are addressed by name the entire flight. The irony with this is it's something that costs nothing yet is meaningful.

3) No gooseneck reading lamps like on UA. Which means I created way too much light in the cabin when I was reading after dinner - all I needed was a focused reading light.

4) I never saw any newspapers offered. Just thought I'd mention this given the thread in the UA forum.

5) The yogurt that was an optional accompaniment to both the dinner and the breakfast was hiding on the carts but never proactively offered. Maybe AA will conclude we don't like yogurt with breakfast because of all the waste - but I'm not sure the average passenger will even remember that yogurt was an optional extra. (I even forgot, in spite of reading the menu right before breakfast.)