First time on EI in May and have a couple of questions for the season EI travelers...

1) My travel agent (in this case, Citibank Thank You / Connexions Travel) requested a seat for me (trying to be near friends on same flight) but said he wouldn't be able to confirm them - just request them. I looked on the EI website and not only won't it accept my PNR, but it appears that they charge $30 each way just to select any (non-premium) seat? Is that right? Is there any way to just view an itinerary on the site?

2) It says you need 4,000 Golden Circle points to upgrade to business. How would I know if seats were actually available for upgrade (before starting a Coupon Connection post). Is it the U class listed on Expert Flyer? Or is it simply if there are any available J seats?

I hear the new EI product is quite nice so I'm not really minding the chance to try a new airline (for me) even though it means not getting miles or bennies on my usual airlines of choice...

Thanks!