TL:DR -- Apple covered mine without charge. Only because I cited this thread for backup, took photos from start to progressive damage, and was politely insistent. The Apple store staff is probably not your friend. Call in first, and request a Senior Advisor to handle your claim.
If this happens to you, being armed with photos and this thread is your best shot at having it covered.
I opened my MacBook Pro one morning and saw a small spidery line inside the LCD on the lower right near the hinge. I had not dropped it, hadn't moved it from the table in days. Then it spread. Then it got worse. Then a second line began. My speculation: it's a fragile LCD and there was something amiss with the assembly at the hinge putting pressure on the LCD. No physical signs on the outside of the screen.
FWIW, mine is one of the "popping" 2016 MLH42LL/A laptops, right out of the box. Popping Sound, MBP 2016
After seeing this thread, I called Apple to get a case number. The rep said it would be covered, and if the store genius gave me a hard time to ask for a manager. The Apple store experience was the dispiriting time suck I expected: they told me $680 for the repair and told me I had dropped it; then admitted they couldn't find any point of impact; then when pressed to give me their hypothetical scenario, finally speculated that I must have closed it with -- please clutch your pearls here -- a grain of rice I didn't notice. Come on, guys.
Know when you are dealing with unreasonable people. I returned home, called in again, had a long talk with a sympathetic rep who escalated it to a senior advisor. I sent photos while we were on the phone. The SA said they look for a point of impact, and a spiderweb, and there was none. He said he was entering notes in the case to be covered at no charge, but to be aware that the techs might disagree upon exam. Apple overnighted me a box, I overnighted it back, and they replaced the screen and overnighted it back. No charge.
Flawless top notch CS... once you get to the right person.
So -- be informed, be reasonable, be firm, and know to walk away and talk to someone else. I believe that Apple will eventually send out a quality report about the LCDs. They know about this, but they are going to stonewall when they can.
The other thing to note is that early adopters of the MBP touchbar are under the older AppleCare Protection Plan. Apple rolled out AppleCare Protection Plus in June of 2017, which includes 2 incidents of accidental damage. There are no plans to grandfather the earlier MBPs, nor to offer the Plus for a upcharge (which I would happily pay) to bring all of this model under consistent coverage. It's frustrating to be effectively punished for being an early adopter of the new models, where all of the design flaws are showing up with use.
