I've had numerous tell me there would be a fee, but I've always just said "go ahead and check them and let's see what the computer says" and there's never been a fee. Crazy that others have been charged but at least AA gives a refund. If they charged me I would probably feel compelled to file a complaint at least with the DOT or a consumer protection agency (if not a class action) because someone needs to get them to fix their systems so that they aren't charging anyone the fees wrongfully. This is the sort of thing that would probably be very easy to uncover in discovery in order to see how widespread of a problem it is. I imagine most people just pay the fee because they think they have no choice (if they're even aware of the benefit).