AA charges expedite fees for awards within 21 days. These are not justifiable, since it's all electronic, but IMO not unethical per se, since they are clearly disclosed.

However...

Recently AA eliminated paper certs. Folks used to keep extras around for last minute award travel, to avoid the fees. This is no longer feasible. This is especially problematic with upgrades: if your upgrade clears within 21 days of your flight, you are charged the fee even if you requested the upgrade prior to the 21 day deadline.

Some conspiracy theorists have suggested that AA is purposely not releasing seats into the upgrade inventory until the 21 day cutoff is passed, in order to collect the extra fees. And they may well be right.

If so, I'd put that into the unethical category.