Oh no. I use that almost daily.

It may sound ridiculous, but these are VERY important things, especially with suspect automatic processing of upgrades already. The only alternative may be to call every day to ask if space has come available- a burden I don't think the airline wants on it's phone system.

It's funny- A lot of discussions here surround how processes work; everything from meal choice to upgrade priority. When everyone else is asking for clarity, things suddenly get even more vague.

You mention that the information is used to decide "whether to pay to guarantee a seat immediately, use mileage to upgrade, hold out to see if a space-available upgrade will clear or select another flight all together" Not having the information at all may seal the decision to actually move to another carrier.

Though I've held out this long, maybe it is finally time for me to look around...