Thank you for all the pilots and expert commentary on Flight 1&2, ACARS, FMS, and general topics as well!
I have seen what here is often called Flight-2, referred to as "Alternate Flight Plan" in many ACARS documents available to peruse. There also seems to be many many versions of ACARS packages, and development over the years. Suffice it to say different airlines in different countries with different manufacturer models and different budgets, might have different ACARS versions?
Documentation for some, under "Flight Plan Report" (in-flight) do say the report includes both "active" and "alternate" flight plan. One might think the MH370 ACARS 1:07 report must have such a version for this 12 minutes story to make any sense at all...(but what makes sense w/ MH370)
...after all, if the Active or Flight 1 shows a change at 1:07 to the West, why isn't ground control going ballistic? If I am all wet, then sorry, but, just sayin. Anyway It's good to know the conscientious pilots here do not seem to ever have willy-nilly Flight 2... wonder if that's true worldwide?