United Airlines “Gave Me Duct Tape” To Repair My Broken Seat [Roundup]

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Gary Leff is one of the foremost experts in the field of miles, points, and frequent business travel - a topic he has covered since 2002. Co-founder of frequent flyer community InsideFlyer.com, emcee of the Freddie Awards, and named one of the "World's Top Travel Experts" by Conde' Nast Traveler (2010-Present) Gary has been a guest on most major news media, profiled in several top print publications, and published broadly on the topic of consumer loyalty. More About Gary »

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Comments

  1. What do they want them to do, cancel the flight? Stuff breaks sometimes. Suck it up and be thankful if that’s your biggest problem of the day.

  2. If it doesn’t move and it should, WD-40. If it moves and it shouldn’t, duct tape.

  3. I agree with David. I’m just surprised that more tray tables don’t break considering how badly some passengers treat them. You did the right thing and reported it to a flight attendant and they provided you with a temporary fix without inconveniencing a ton of other passengers. Subsequently, the flight attendant would file a report and the problem would be fixed at the next lengthy stopover. I’d be interested to see how United responded after you gave them your flight details.

  4. Considering the tape was FAA approved (look at the blue writing on the tape) and had an yellow MEL inop sticker with the prescribed terminology for the MEL I think this passenger embellished his story and in fact a maintenance tech came on, taped it up and deferred it in the logbook as is SOP. Don’t ever take pax social media at face value!

  5. You didnt bother to note that United replied asking passenger for confirmation number. Im sure he was compensated for the inconvenience.

  6. It sounds like this entitled passenger wanted United to profusely apologize upgrade him to first, give him a $$$ compensation, hence the attempted social media shaming including the VFTW tabloid exposure.

  7. I try to smile at as many people as I can in a day. It masks my otherwise bad attitude.

  8. @Dan77W: To help aircraft depart on time, if airlines would leave a roll of FAA-approved speed tape and some yellow sticky notes next to the toilet paper, passengers could self-repair many broken items. The citation to the F.A.R. on the tape seems to refer to a flammability standard. When flying, do you prefer to be seated in non-smoking, smoking, or burnt beyond recognition?

    Read more: https://www.faa.gov/documentLibrary/media/Advisory_Circular/AC_25.853-1.pdf

  9. The duct tape story goes out of its way to crap on United. First off, it’s Air Wisconsin – operating as United Express. And yes, Air Wisconsin kinda sucks. But, that said, this is vastly blown out of proportion. People do abuse the seats and Air Wisconsin’s fleet is old and worn to begin with.

    But again Gary, way to go in spinning this to bash United – again.

  10. @Ken A

    Yes that is precisely the tape that we use to tape crap up in the cabin (broken overhead bin, busted armrests and yes tray tables) BECAUSE it’s not flammable! Thats the point. It isn’t duct tape, and we use that interior cabin tape to “secure” a tray table like this in the up position per the MEL and AMM.

  11. Inflight they don’t have a mechanic available. Preflight, do you really want a 20 minute delay (5 for the fix and 15 for government paperwork). Your fellow pax would be so happy for you.

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