When I travel with my mother, she cannot walk the distances required in many of the larger airports. Based in DEN, she can't walk to the bridge from check-in to the A gates for our AA flights, and there's no way she can get between gates or to the AC in DFW or ORD when we're connecting (unless they're very close, obviously) so wheelchairs are a necessity there. Often we visit family served by smaller airports (HDN, PIA, BDL) and at those she can actually walk from even the farthest gate to baggage claim. Yes, it's a slow walk, but that means we rarely have to wait for our bags. She's an independent person and doesn't like to use wheelchairs when she doesn't have to so she will frequently advise in advance that she doesn't need a wheelchair upon arrival, but after that it's up to AA. I don't consider this abuse, I consider it situational necessity.

On another note, it's been a while since we traveled together so I may be wrong but I remember the requests being each way, not round-trip.