I think miles are actually a bigger problem than status (not that I want AA to devalue their miles). With all the massive credit card offers and other ways to receive miles, IMO AA stands to lose more money from someone redeeming an international F AAward ticket. A person needs to purchase a ticket in order to use their status to upgrade anyway. Clearly I'm not someone who is crunching the numbers at AA headquarters, but it would seem status doesn't cost them as much as miles do. Just a thought...