Authorities in the United States are levying a substantial fine against Lufthansa for discriminating against Jewish passengers, and are directing Lufthansa to cease and desist from future similar violations.
Continue reading: Lufthansa Fined $4 Million For Jewish Passenger Discrimination
Share your questions, experiences, and thoughts below.
Mind boggling this happened, even more shocking (or maybe not) on a German airline with their history.
Agree it was very badly handled as per the DOT report. As they mentioned, LH should have done everything possible to identify the culprits and would have no issue if they were refused.
Ultimately it would have clearly been better not to refuse anyone on the connecting flight. Hindsight is a wonderful thing.
Nor sure how they reached a figure of $21k
In addition to being culturally sensitive, the Hasidic population are extremely litigious simply because many in the community are also lawyers. This makes it quite easy to file a class action suit.
Important to point out that most people were not traveling as part of a group. There either were specifically targeted based on their religion.
The consent decree should also have required Lufthansa to identify the management personnel involved in making this decision and to terminate them (if still working) immediately including barring them from working for Lufthansa and all affiliated airlines permanently.
You guys are all afraid of the comment section but the worst comment sections on this blog are on articles where:
1. ben has a valid complaint about anything
2. ben mentions delta and we get a single tim dunn comment, a dozen comments referring to tim dunn (along with comment chains where tim dunn argues against these comments), and three dozen comments impersonating tim dunn.
@Ben (or anyone else), do you know if the EU equivalent agency will impose its own fines/sanctions on LH? Or was this event solely within DOT's authority?
Also, it appears that they only have to pay $2 million, as the other rest is a "credit" for what they already paid the pax.
Clearly though, that's what the operators of this site want, because zero has be done to stop/curb the imitators or Delta sycophancy, despite plenty of complaints by others.
Makes sense, because engagement = views = ad impressions, but sort of disappointing.
Was not surprised at all by the original incident. Being a German airline, no doubt most Lufthansa employees would like to fly Jewish passengers directly to concentration camps.
Sounds like the employees involved should be sued and fined, not Lufthansa itself.
How did all the employees in a German city, working for a German airline, decide that “ban all them Jews” is a good policy just because some individuals (who happen to be Jews) were not complying with policy?
Duh. You don’t sue individual front line employees working for a company. Moreover there’s a legal obligation under GDPR not to disclose the names of individual employees.
No as the journey originated ex the US and is covered by the DOT. The litigation was brought in the US.
I sometimes think it’s just a slow day in Miami and everything has been said about credit cards, Hyatt,American,and breakfast.
The comment was for all passengers connecting to Budapest, not all Jewish passengers. Indeed slow news day in the Land of Lucky.
They were “targeted” based on their destination. The employee added a blanket note for all passengers to Budapest.
Eh, lets be honest, Tim deserves whatever clapback he gets in the comments section.
The fine clearly states is due to religion or ethnicity. And why wouldn't this blog report on this story, slow news day or not?
@Shlomo Shekelbergstein What an incredibly ignorant and false comment. Shame on you.
Ahhhh LH... Ahhhhh Hasidic Jews.
Well I am not surprised that LH did this. I say again, LH's employees are on average the rudest airline employees I have ever had the misfortune of interacting with.
Hasidic Jews seem to think rules don't apply to them.
LH messed up, big time. I can understand the stress of wanting to handle this en masse, but the move was shortsighted and clearly discrimination. Anyone defending this action by LH has to think seriously about what if it was a different group who would be visibly identified. And even if it was "anyone connecting to Budapest" they still clearly lumped them all in together, where it is likely that included almost only Jews. Comments about how rude Hasidic Jews are only adds to the "they all look alike" vibe. I'm not into the woke liberal nonsense and think most discrimination claims are exaggerated or victim mentality. But this was a clear case and the fine by DOT was minor.
If lh banned all pax to bud regardless of their race, how did dot determined the race was at play. I am just curious to understand the dot logic.
Only in America.
You won't see any airlines fined for discrimination against people wearing turban.
But then again there's no such blogs like Yusefs Deals to pressure everyone.
Same way you decided that all the employees in a German city working for a German airline is responsible just because some individuals (who happen to work that flight) we're not complying with policy.
But I guess rules doesn't apply to you?
Don't forget
3. the comments whining about other comments regarding Tim Dunn including from Tim Dunn himself.
Next time do the world a favour and send the flight to the International Criminal Court in The Hague.
Divert the flight to Tel Aviv to pick up Gallant and Netanyahu on the way.
You (predictably) did not address the actual question posed. If there was no policy based on some sort of discernible feature (in this case, visibly religious Jews), there should be no fine from the DOT. I realize it was a settlement, and perhaps you have some insider knowledge regarding the situation, but as is, you offer no basis for this, and the LH attorneys would've been all over this point if it were true. (Moreover, the airline could've clearly used BUD as a cover in this case for discriminating against a specific group - were there any non-Jewish passengers flying to BUD included in the settlement?). As reported, it sounds like the airline chose to bar all the visibly Jewish passengers due to a few bad actors, and it is as simple as that. You might want to genuinely ask yourself how you would feel about a similar policy applied to the Muslim-looking or Asian-looking or trans-looking or gay-looking passengers (or whatever other group you want to carve people up into to establish a hierarchy of grievances). Any justification of or hedging about the way this went down, at least based on the facts as reported, is indefensible in a liberal, tolerant society. But, it's just Jews, so people who would otherwise balk at discriminatory behavior directed at other groups seem to be very comfortable excusing blatant stereotyping.
To repeat: Is nobody else appalled by this type of blatant racist? This is a story about a discriminatory action directed against a specific group and has nothing to do with the conflict in Middle East, regardless of what you think about it. The fact that you instead chose to complain about that conflict tells everyone here everything they need to know about your racist/stereotyping mindset. If we could try to treat others as individuals instead of throwing everyone into tribes and assuming the worst about them it might go a long way towards the possibility of real progress. Those supporting Hamas and Gallant on either side are the real problem, two sides of the same coin. It's not going to matter to you, because you already clearly know that all Jews are evil, but it's simply pathetic that this type of racism is now just broadcast regularly online with no pushback. I'd love to hear all your educated thoughts about the history of the Middle East, but this is just not the forum, and that is the problem. In your world, a story involving Jews has to immediately lead to a comment on that situation and all the genocide being committed etc, despite having nothing to do with it. That is called racism.
Lufthansa a eu totalement raison et j espère que si une nouvelle pandémie devait avoir lieu elle agirait de la même par quel truchement certains passager pense avoir un droit divin pour s exonéré des règles bravo Lufthansa les 6 ou 7 millions de coup sont anecdotique dans les finances de Lufthansa et cela mérite cet investissement pour défendre ses principes
Lufthansa was bad but so was the US DOT. The airline misconduct did not occur on the JFK-FRA flight. The airline misconduct was by FRA gate staff or the FRA-BUD crew so the US DOT should not have acted like a bully.
Too bad the bad guy passengers didn't get punished. They were troublemakers by changing seats and refusing to wear masks at the height of the pandemic when millions were dying.
The people in question are Jewish, not Israeli. But thank you for finally unmasking and revealing yourself to be the anti-Semite we always knew you were.
Glad to see LH finally being held accountable for something. Took me a year and mediation by söp to get EC 261 compensation for a downgrade which they pretended didn't happen. 2 years for 4 million is pretty good, considering.
Was a little confused how Lufthansa jumped from a few passengers failing to comply with the mask policy to banning all of the Jewish people from their connecting flight, but after reading the original article, I guess they did. That's pretty shocking.
However, what is the chances of 100+ people on the flight shouting and arguing with the crew/captain over the mask policy and the captain saying fuck it?
There have been cases, however you’re not aware of everyone as they don’t make the media. Not just the US.
I see the Tide turning in this country! 25 years ago, you would have seen maybe 1% complaining about the chosen ones, now with the internet and the "Outside media" people are seeing what really is happening there in the ME. people are beginning to realize the Hold of the less than 1% of US population on the Politicians, Judicial system, The Treasury, The media and of course the US Foreign Policy.
@Watson
Enough of this anti-Semite drama. More than 90% of the Jews are not indigenous people of the Middle East. They are Europeans and Europeans are not Semites. Arabs are the real Semites. Even if you accidentally step on a Jew's foot they will accuse you of being anti-Semite.
@We control everything!
You are right. Too much of this anti-Semite drama. More than 90% of the Jews are not indigenous people of the Middle East. They are Europeans and Europeans are not Semites. Arabs are the real Semites. Even if you accidentally step on a Jew's foot they will accuse you of being anti-Semite
@Vikram: So hating Jews is okay because most aren't native to the Middle East??? I don't know what point you think you're making.
"Antisemitism" is the commonly accepted term for Jewish hate/discrimination, your misgivings notwithstanding. By holding random Jews accountable for the actions of Israel, BB is demonstrating a textbook case.
One would have to search far and wide to find a more asinine and imbecilic comment than this one.
One would have to search far and wide to find a more asinine and imbecilic comment than this one.
I wonder whether we would see the same attention, and fine, if it was fans of a sports team rather than a religious group that got booted off the flight because a part of their member choose not obey the mask rules that were in force at that time..
Will American Airlines be similarly fined for collectively discriminating against those five unconnected African Americans who were removed from their flight earlier this year?
While LH clearly would have been better advised to deny boarding only to those passenger among the group who did not comply with the mask rules that were in force at that time, would we see the same public reaction if a a group of sports fans had been offloaded because some members of that group had not followed mask rules?
The decision to offload passengers that did not comply with mask rules that were in force at that time was correct, what led to the kerfuffle was the decision to offload an entire group.
That might depend on their lawyer, how well connected they are, and possibly if they can claim to be members of another, more vocal, minority.
Sadly, I doubt that merely being African American have will have the same effect.
“All animals are equal, but some animals are more equal than others.”
(George Orwell, Animal Farm - A 1945 satirical allegorical novella, in the form of a beast fable.)
As the journey (booking locator) originated in the US, the DOT reserves the right to take action.
Germans didn't learn a thing from their grim history. It's why they think supporting a genocidal entity now clears their conscience and makes everything they did fine. But this is what they still think of Jewish people.
Those 8 dark skinned men that were kicked off a flight due to a scent, should get a hold of the lawyer who respresented these people !
That is a pretty heavy compensation considering many other situations where the airlines (or hotels) squeeze out a dime (10 cents)
@Watson
I didn't say hating Jews is okay. Read my comment again. I was explaining the word "Semite" to you. Arabs are the real Semites not European settlers. BB is a Zionist with a corrupted mindset.
@24 Hrs to vacate your Home of centuries
Be careful otherwise you will be accused of being anti-Semite by supporters of European Settlers in the Middle East. Even if you accidentally step on one of them they will accuse you of being anti-Semite.
I agree with your sentiments Brutus!
Animal Farm. I had to study the book at school. An excellent read.
Ben - When are you going to kick off these anti-semites from your blog? As I understand, you're of Jewish descent, no? Do you not feel attacked by these low-life scum?
They were not a group, ie they were not all traveling together on a tour, they were just on the same plane heading to this event.
Well, ok.
You hate woke nonsense, except when it’s anti-semitism then? Wouldn’t some see the fight for non-discrimination against jews as the original woke philosophy?
There was a WWIi quote that started by saying first, they came for the Jews, but I stayed silent.. You would do well to review it.
If you stand for one, you should stand for all.
Those passengers not only did refuse to wear masks, but also switched seats etc. so the the airline did not even have the proper option of single int out the perpetrators.
I agree. This is why I, like Zack, stand for the Freedom Fighters in Palestine & Lebanon.
Racism is saying Israelis can defend themselves but dark skinned Palestinians cannot defend their homeland against occupiers and settlers.
Classical Liberal, are you a racist?
Many Jewish people condemn Israel's Genocide in Gaza as well as the slaughter of Palestinians and theft of Palestinian land in the West Bank. Do you, Moishe, consider these Jewish people to be anti-semites?
I have seen one rudest airline employees.
Turkish Airlines employees are the worst when something is going wrong.