Yup, me too, back in the good old days.

I've met various people on flights who rolled their own automated check-in. Generally, their line of work was filled with related web acronyms, so this was a simple exercise. The web site service isn't unique. Reminds me of the best critique of Henry Miller, "He had sex in the afternoon, and he thought he invented it."

These days, there are plenty of plats who bought the lowest available fare. I frequently compare notes in the "on deck" row (14 on a 738) and the other plats are on my fare, and we upgrade in sequence order.

Thus, checking in on a connect from e.g. Bradley International Airport gets an earlier sequence number going transcon from EWR, and it makes a huge difference, though not enough of one to make it worth living up there...