As much as I am disappointed in this, it was coming. AA's program was too liberal compared to the other programs in this respect.
I probably wouldn't mind paying the extra fees if AA's cabins were up to snuff. Give me new lie-flat seats, full AVOD, good plentiful food and quality wine, and great non-surly FA's (gee, this is starting to sound like CX..) and I'd probably pay the fee. I'll now avoid it as much as possible. Argh. Or, maybe this is the kick in the butt that I need to go back to EXP again.