Al, I'm not a "grumpy" controller (in general), and I find it interesting that you take exception to my opinion. It is based on working with over 100 air carriers on a daily bases, from all continents of the planet. Most of whom are in your exact position of flying to far flung places on rare occasions. From that rather broad cross section of aviators no group routinely poses the question I raised earlier. I wanted to know why you folks do?
You appear to work for a "blame" oriented organization that expects perfection so a certain level is to CYA, but why can't you get the service runway in use from the Atis? I am not going to give you a different answer. In most cases the person you are asking is a trainee who doesn't know anything about an expected construction related runway change until it happens, and then they have to change the atis.