Thanks nermaljcat. I actually do have my eye on an upgrade for this flight (and, no doubt, so do 56 other people ) so we'll see how it pans out. I just went ahead and changed my seats for the 2nd last row since the theme seems to be that the middle seats at rear of the plane behind MSC all stay empty...or at least the majority do. I've looked at flights on this route for the next week and it fits this "pattern". Not very scientific but nonetheless worth a shot!

Thanks again.