Yeah, I got the e-mail, too. I have 31 upgrades which I never bother to use. Even when I was flying on business a lot the only time I was able to redeem them would be on the MCI-ORD (or vice versa) route. Typically it was a morning flight when I was heading to the office so swilling all the booze I could imbibe on the hour-long flight was not a good idea. I was able to use them ONCE on a longer flight with a real dinner. It was a flight to NYC on a Super Bowl Sunday evening. Coincidence? I think not. :-)

So... it's the usual airline tactic. Let the value of a perk deteriorate over time to the point that it's useless and when you take it away few people will notice.

I'm assuming that loyalty points, like others, expire only after there's been no activity in the account for a specified period (3 years?). Easy to keep the account active- donate a few miles to charity or use miles to buy a magazine subscription or make a purchase through AA's shopping portal.