If you are considering AA, check the AA forum for threads on AA's upcoming/pending upgrade co-payments, what F/T'ers think about them, etc. AA's next AAdvantage newsletter may shed some light on it too, but several F/Ter's have gotten a jump on the "news." You'll see quite the range of posts--some note the business needs of AA, some are not affected by the new fees, some thinking of leaving AA because of them. Think of the kinds of flying you do and how you use your miles (ex. using miles for award tickets vs. using miles for upgrades so you can earn miles for the flights, etc.) And, it might be one of those things to hold off on briefly to see how the dust from this settles.
Just my $0.02.

Okay, so another $0.02--after noting threads here on how to "match" elite AA levels....if you're considering AA, and can actually "fly" the airline, you've still got time to call AA C/S (it's nowhere on aa.com) & do an AA "challenge", for Gold and mabye even for Plat, esp. if you've got business and/or Christmas/Thanksgiving/leisure travel coming up. Again, scope out the AA forum on it.