That's what I was thinking as well.

In other cases, they may just over-cater Business by the number of crew that need meals. This way, there's less chance that a Business passenger will not get the meal they want, yet there's also no wasted food. If they airline is going to over-cater anyway to keep the Business passengers happy, this is a good way to do it.

If it wasn't a special meal, and just one that another pax had pre-ordered, then I don't see how this situation is different than any other where they run out of choices and the last pax gets whatever the remaining meal is.

OP, did you even bother to mention to the crew that you had a preference? or did you just HOPE the they would have what you wanted when they got to you?

You can do that, you know.

The special meal was of a very specific type of cuisine, and I think I'd have really struggled to eat it as it is not my thing at all. We aren't talking generic vs generic meal.

I didn't mention after receiving the menu that I had a preference, no. Genuinely didn't know you could do that - thought it'd be a bit arsey to call someone over to state a preference in advance, and didn't think running out was standard in business.

It would really help to know just what the special meal was and perhaps specifics of the route beyond knowing that it was an AF flight and apparently a longhaul full dinner service in business class.

it was really bad they must have full stock of meal as it is for business class....

maybe if you want you can submit complain to the airline through their website by mentioning flight date, flight time and also steward or stewardess who serve you in business class so the management can investigate...

I had those experience before in sq flight and then i submitted complain and they did investigate

Yes, definitely happens. I wrote about it happening to me on a TK flight recently - and there were only 5 people in the entire business class cabin.

what airline were you on? i presume you were flying P,I, OR J.

I THINK MOST Airplane food in biz class is not too special. i usually tell the FA that they can let the rest of the crowd go first, and i will take whatever is left over. the only meals i think are very good were on ANA. i am also not happy with the crummy bottom shelf wines they pour. this stuff is not much better than 2 buck chuck. on our last trip,on BA, i noted the names, and they are all available for well under $15 a bottle retail. $4,000 seat, and the wine is a joke.. speaking of where you choose to sit, BA has a 24 hr maxi choice on seats...........unless there are 2 flying together. then, you are assigned seats that you find when you check in at the front desk.

Plus it's a little odd because they know the seat number that ordered to special meal. I think the FA should insist that they take it.

But it isn't uncommon to run out of meal choices.

Depends if the caterers messed up - I pre-order vegetarian meals for my flights, and will eat any of the veggie offerings (Hindu veggie, vegan, lacto-ovo, even a fruit plate) but I have had them load the wrong special meal type that I will not eat (e.g. Kosher (with chicken), Muslim (with meat) and have refused them, but taken one of the regular offerings instead (there is often a vegetarian pasta on offer) which I guess could lead to the circumstance above. It is not that I was picky and refused the meal I ordered, it was that they failed to have the meal I ordered!

It's a catering mistake, but it's not obvious to me that some other passenger who did not order a special meal should bear the burden of the catering mistake and be stuck with the erroneous special meal that you attempted to order.

Considering the rather insignificant cost of providing a duplicate meal for each and every FC and BC seat, and also considering the satisfaction factor of those highly rated valuable customers, my thought is that it would behoove airlines to have enough of all selections for all in FC and BC on every flight. How much do you want to bet that the left overs would be an easy sell to those in comfort rows or even economy for a slight upcharge to cover the cost of those meals or at the least, the majority of the cost of those extra meals? Win win and cha-ching win for the airline with enough foresight to implement this. :)

If I was the FA, and saw you didn't get your choice on the first service, I would be damn sure to go to you first on the second service so that you did at least get one of your meals as your choice. I don't see why airlines doing LH don't rotate service in flight. If you have more than one service, the first one should be in one direction, the next in the opposite, so those at the end of each cabin have a chance of getting what they prefer. Those in mid cabin should still have ample opportunity to get their choice because usually there are equal amounts of choices available.

One other thing, most established airlines should know historically the ratio of choices taken up, and order accordingly so that customer dissatisfaction is kept to a minimum as well as waste. Their are always a few extra meals brought on board "just in case" of dropsies.

I think it has happened to me twice that my preference was not available and the other choice was a spicy dish that I could not eat. I am happy with salads and asked if at the end of the service they had any extra of the main trays, could I have the salads or other items instead. Both times I ended up with a good salad meal and extra desserts :) and my health was a little better for it as well.

I just got a reply from AF - 8k miles for each of us was the compensation offered.

You still haven't told us exactly what was the special meal that was the only food available for you.

Sorry. It was a flight from Japan (KIX) so it was a Japanese meal of some sort. Don't get me wrong, I ate very local food the whole time we were there and enjoyed it, but it didn't look nearly as good as the main meal, and most of it seemed to be slightly unusual stuff that I hadn't seen before...so not really what I fancied when the main meal was beautiful beef.