It's a real drag and the end of an era, for sure. The new super jets just aren't the same at all.
In recent years, 747 upper decks were used for regular rows of seats, were they not? On American carriers? There is a great scene in the film, "Nixon Frost", where David Frost is meeting his future GF in the lounge on the upper deck of a 747 crossing the Atlantic.
My brother is a platinum flyer on Emirates and there are some super lux planes these days but those old Pan Am 747s were the shiznit. I have a friend who is a retired Pan Am 747 Captain. What a career he had.