While I was showing one of our Airline Crew Organizer and Flight Records to a United Flight Attendant back in mid 1996, she told me that she no longer had to buy one because United Airlines' Onboard Services was now giving one free to all United Flight Attendants. I was surprised because I didn't know United was buying from us. She showed me the one she had just received which looked almost identical to the one we produced - but we had not produced it. I was shocked because United had not contacted us to provide any nor had they asked if they could use our format. In other words, they had stolen our format and made about 20,000 unauthorized copies of our Organizer covering the remainder of 1996 and all of 1997.

I made a few phone calls and was able to talk to one of the people who was responsible for this plagiarism. She claimed that in a search for a gift for United Flight Attendants as a thank you for attending some required training, somebody had suggested an organizer and that our's (WingMate's) was really popular and so why not use it. So, they did - without bothering to contact us. She claimed that nobody knew where it came from. Hard to believe! In the phone call, I was assured that it was not going to happen again and so we let it drop - realizing the futility of trying to fight United Airlines in court and hoping that our sales might increase the following year after more United Flight Attendants were introduced to our format.

In 1998, it happened again. So much for promises from middle management. Next, I wrote to Gerald Greenwald (CEO of United Airlines) advising him of the less than ethical behavior of those who worked for him. Several letters later, he responded claiming that he saw little similarity between the two calendars. So much for the powers of observation and integrity in upper management.

United did not produce one in 1999 leading us to think that they had recognized that it wasn't nice to steal someone else's ideas and use them as their own. Our sales to United Flight Attendants increased significantly. Then, unexpectedly, they produced them again in 2000 and yet again in 2001 with some slight modifications but with the same disastrous results for our sales to United Flight Attendants. It appears that only United's dire financial problems have stopped them for now. I wish I could believe that it was that integrity had become more than just a hollow slogan for United Airlines.