It seems that just about everyone is dumping their UA miles to book award flights, so what about SWU's? Have they also become almost worthless due to the lack of upgradeable seats? Or is there a special allocation of upgrade seats as long as at the time of boarding there are free seats available in the next class of service?

Also, is there a way to find out how long an upgrade list is for any given flight i.e. how many pax are in front of me on the list?