In a recent flight, I ordered fish, but it was not available, the crew apologized and offered me another meal.
Anyway, I flew after that with the same airline, and when they started serving meals, a crew member came to me, greeted me by name and apologized again on behalf of the airline for not being able to serve me fish in my previous flight!
They asked me if I would like to try the fish in this flight, I said yes and I got it.
How did they know that?
Depending on the flight routing, air crews do have the ability to communicate with the airline offices during the flight.
Most likely in this case, the fact that a special meal cart was improperly stocked was relayed to the operations office, either during flight or upon landing. A caring staff member who received that communique probably made a note in your booking record. And a thoughtful flight attendant who saw the note came to express an apology.
Passenger manifests are constantly updated right up until the door closes. And they contain quite a few tidbits about the passengers for the flight attendants reference. So it is quite easy for your issue to have been noted before the flight left.
It is a little known fact that most airline flight attendants are actually psychically linked, in a way not dissimilar to that shown by the "Borg" in the television show "Star Trek" (or is that Star Wars? I always get those two confused. Whichever one it was that had Picard in it, and not the one with James Earl Jones).
Using a "hive mind" allows these flight attendants to share what experiences their passengers have had on previous flights, and attempt to overcome poor experiences - such as your lack of fish - on future flights.
Clearly the flight attendant on the second flight "remembered" you - using this shared consciousness with the flight attendant from the first flight - and thus was able to overcome the shortage of fish issue.
It's also possible (although realistically far less likely) that they just keep records and notes from one flight to the next on some form of a computer system, based on your name or frequent flyer information or something. Such a computer system may seem like science fiction, but I'm reliably information by Wired magazine that computers can do things like that now!
