I’m not sure what exactly to make of this, other than that Lufthansa Group CEO Carsten Spohr maybe doesn’t have much of a sense of humor, and some people also have strange idols?
Lufthansa CEO dismissive to loyal customer & fan
There’s a story circulating in German media about how a Lufthansa frequent flyer has been pursued by the company’s security staff for apparently being too big of a fan of the company’s CEO, or something?
Charles Bahr is a 21-year-old German entrepreneur, who runs a Gen Z consulting company (to help companies position things for Gen Z consumers). He’s also an aviation geek and a big Lufthansa fan — he’s a Miles & More HON Circle member, which is the carrier’s top-tier status. I have to imagine he’s the youngest (or one of the youngest) to hold this exclusive tier.
This drama dates back to September 2022, when Bahr found himself on a flight with Spohr. According to Bahr, “I spoke to him very politely and told him that I fly with the airline 100 times a year,” but Spohr seemed uninterested, and just continued reading his newspaper.
Bahr then “later asked him again in a friendly manner for a photo, but he said no and said that he generally doesn’t take photos.” Bahr is skeptical of that, because many of his friends have photos with Spohr, and he concludes that “I put myself in the position where one of my most loyal customers comes, then you should always be nice and take a moment.”
Bahr apparently couldn’t get this incident out of his head, so he created a life-sized cardboard cutout of Spohr, and then brought it to Berlin Airport (BER), where he took a picture with it at the Lufthansa check-in area. He then took to LinkedIn to share his experience being rejected by Spohr, and also shared the picture of him with the cutout.
Lufthansa security staff get involved
In December 2022, following the LinkedIn post, Lufthansa’s “head of executive protection” reached out to Munich police to accuse Bahr of posing a threat to and spying on Lufthansa’s CEO. Bahr was accused of somehow hacking into Lufthansa’s systems and figuring out the travel plans of Spohr.
This is an accusation that Bahr vehemently denies. Bahr states that about a year ago, he had an appointment with Lufthansa regarding TikTok, during which he pointed out a security flaw. Specifically, he pointed out how the QR codes on Lufthansa boarding passes would allow anyone to access the personal details of flyers, and this apparently even impacted Spohr directly. However, Bahr was bringing this to the company’s attention, and claims he wasn’t personally exploiting this (for that matter, this is a security concern at many airlines).
The head of executive protection asked to meet with Bahr, so the two met at a private apartment in Frankfurt. According to Bahr, “the meeting was like in a movie, my cell phone was put in a case and no recordings were supposed to be made.”
Bahr was asked to confirm if he hacked into Lufthansa’s systems or spied on Sphor in any way. The Lufthansa security officer reportedly claimed, “I have blacklisted six people this year and you would be the seventh.” He also claimed that he knew people at MDAX and TikTok, and could get him in trouble there, as well as at SWISS and United.
Bahr was also asked about his participation in a WhatsApp group about Lufthansa. The security official claimed that the group was named “Carsten Spohr muss weg” (“muss weg” translates “has to go”). Bahr made it clear that he hadn’t done anything wrong, and apparently not much more came from that incident. He was even invited to a Lufthansa event in May 2023, at which Spohr was in attendance. Yet he’s also coming public with this entire story more recently.
Bahr concludes that “I think that I have upset Mr. Spohr with my LinkedIn post, the reach and the cardboard cutout and they are simply trying to intimidate me in some way,” and he acknowledges that this “partly worked because I deleted my post.” Bahr claims to still love the Lufthansa brand.
What a strange situation…
I’m not sure what exactly to make of this, other than that this has to be one of the strangest “security” stories that I’ve ever heard involving an airline executive.
Admittedly we only have one side of the story, though the news organizations reporting on this claim to have copies of a lot of the correspondences, which largely corroborate this version of events.
What can we really conclude here?
- To be honest, I’m kind of puzzled by someone having Spohr as their idol; are you more impressed by his seven year delay on Allegris, his short lived Skytrax award, or the number of airline subsidiaries he’s been able to start up and subsequently shut down?
- Creating a cardboard cutout of the CEO is no doubt weird, but I don’t see any way in which that poses a safety risk; this seems to me more like a young person trying to get some attention, or something
- While I can’t imagine Bahr posed any sort of actual risk at any point, I am curious if there’s more to the story; did Lufthansa maybe have evidence that an internal system was being accessed to figure out Spohr’s travel plans, so his flights with Spohr weren’t actually a coincidence?
Bottom line
A 21-year-old Lufthansa super fan claims to have flown with CEO Carsten Spohr, only to be rejected for a picture. So he made a cardboard cutout of him, took a picture with it at Berlin Airport, and wrote about it on LinkedIn.
Thereafter, Lufthansa’s head of executive protection not only reached out to the police, but also set up a creepy meeting in a private apartment, which does indeed sound straight out of a movie. I don’t know what to think here other than being confused.
What do you make of this Lufthansa story?
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