While its true that you could technically earn SE for about $5k but majority of SEs are not one by choice, rather by force as in they have to fly for work and/or pleasure and am willing to bet their spend far surpasses $20K a year. Infact $20K a year is really peanuts in the context of business travel.

I think i personally spent over $20K on my leasure flights alone. My business travels were north of $40K and I'm not even a weekly flyer.

Also, the once or twice a year full fare flyer is just as likely to fly pretty much anyone as their decisions are usually based on schedule rather than anything else. Airlines know last minute people usually just have to fly with little to no choice, hence the prices for full fare J.

So yea, I think taking meal orders from SEs first is little thing AC can do to show respect for the top tiers.

PS: I was on an I award today and had my meal and drink order taken before departure along with another SE seated behind me. Everyone else got to pick later in the flight. Fantastic SD on this flight I might add.

Look I'm an SE I get it I travel for work a lot, in fact I'm on overseas right now... (probably why I keep checking this page a lot:) ). No need to claim how much you spend, I spend a lot a bunch of us do...

I don't buy it. These are the people you want to use your airline. Realistically how many full-fare J's are there per flight... probably less than the number of SE's. All I'm saying it would be good business sense to treat them right. I have personal experience with people like this no need to give me hypothetical thoughts... - they go for whatever airline treats them right and giving someone last choice who (almost certainly) paid the most to be there is bad customer service. Maybe it's the whole "lets hate AC" vibe many Canadian's have but if I paid that much and had to eat something I didn't want I would propogate that hate too. Most of us have our travel plans in advance but our schedules change a lot so we book refundable tickets a lot... we could fly with anyone to get to our destination.

This is to not even mention where E's would fit in. I still hold my opinion that reward tickets should not get priority.

...and halfway through writing this I realize how silly this argument really is to waste time on a personal basis. I'm just thinking like a business here - maybe a sign I've been working too much. Anyways this will be my last post about it :)

Whatever protocol you are provided an answer with, the real answer is YMMV.

Here we go. There are basic guidelines that we are expected to adhere to and like many issues a level of common sense and sound practice prevails.

Officially - meal choice priority is to be afforded to customers holding VIP & Super Elite status. Within those guidelines and those categories I give priority to those holding ACMM (Air Canada Million Miler Status) - to me that is common sense. There is enough of a balanced meal ratio that it is so rare that we cannot accommodate all of the above.

I personally do not take upgraded Super Elites out of the fold. In my eyes, a Super Elite is a Super Elite and I recognize who they are and what they represent. Where feasible, I include the traveling companions of said SE's, as not to diminish the overall travel experience for our most valued customers.

Again, where feasible and not necessarily mandated, I try to follow with Elites, then Star Gold Customers. Sound complicated?? It is - especially when trying to carry out this task on the ground prior to departure in a very limited time frame.

Flying on a reward puts you the lowest in that category from my understanding..

I believe your status would work in your favor, not the class of rewards that you booked..

Thanks for the info. I didn´t realize anyone else but SEs are given any preference.

I guess I´ve been pretty lucky so far: I´ve always received my first meal preference as an E even when being upgraded at the gate, or maybe I just always choose the unpopular meal option.:p

This seems to be a contentious issue regardless of the airline. I have colleagues that work for most of the other major N.A carriers and from what I've been told, everybody seems to operate on a similar platform. As far as granting preferred status to those that have paid the most, I'm not sure that any airline manifest gets that specific. In fact there may even be prevailing privacy issues that restricts that information - I'm only speculating.

Thank you. Just the response I was hoping for. Now if only you could convince the rest of your peers to do so.

Always among the first to be asked, whether award or revenue.

Although I have seen varying methods, I always appreciate it when a SD does the meal order by status. It's not the end of the world if the SD doesn't do this, but all these seemingly "little" things go a long, long way. Things get really complicated when seat swapping occurs in J, and I have seen this happen a lot recently. So even though I am not SE at this juncture (soon!) I still appreciate the recognition you give to E's and *G's.

+1 Totally agree with you (maybe not the *G part). I always greatly appreciate it when I get my meal preference taken after the SE's but before the others in J

If you are really picky or heart-set on an option and have no status, just ask in a friendly and discreet way prior to them taking the main orders, and mention that you are really hoping for X. I'm sure it will be OK :)

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Is this really that much of an issue now that AC has started loading food at 110% so that they can sell meals in the back? I thought I read a comment somewhere that they were considering uping this as it has proven quite popular. At the same time we're only talking about dishes worth at most $10...

The order priority is nice but frankly I'm just happy when it's done in a friendly manner (some use passengers names which is a nice touch) and goes beyond "do you want chicken or beef?".

Truthfully, and maybe I'm just naive in the methods of airline catering, but since you can pre-order special meals in advance, I don't see why the customer, who is in a confirmed J seat at least 72 hrs in advance, couldn't pre-order their desired meal. I think the rotation of the meals is infrequent enough that it could be loaded as an option in the "my bookings" portion of AC.com, so that when you are doing on-line modifications or on-line eUpgrades, you could select one of your two or three meal choices just like you can pre-select a special meal. Given that there are only three options, it shouldn't be that problematic (especially since the # of special meals options is > 5). For those J seats that are filled by upgrades after the 72 hr mark, the normal catering loads would be in place for those customers based on the 110% stock.

That way, everyone has an equal opportunity to be satisfied and not get "stuck" with something they don't like, and thus feeling not as important as customer X who is SE/E/Joe K.A./DYKWIA Guy.

BTC on AC? What next, birthday cake requests in Y, a la SQ? :D

P.S: I think you have a very valid point.