1. A method comprising: receiving a packet at an egress line interface of a forwarding plane of a network element; determining that a service has not been performed on the packet in a services plane of the network element; determining whether an existing flow can be identified for the packet by conducting a flow table lookup at the egress line interface; determining, when the existing flow cannot be identified for the packet, whether a predicted flow can be identified for the packet at the egress line interface; performing, when the predicted flow cannot be identified for the packet, a service access control list (ACL) lookup at the egress line interface; and forwarding, after determining that the service has not been performed on the packet, the packet to the services plane based on the existing flow, the predicted flow, or the service ACL lookup.