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.
In this post:
The basics of Lufthansa’s Jewish denied boarding fiasco
The United States Department of Transportation (DOT) has just fined Star Alliance carrier Lufthansa $4 million, related to an incident that happened in 2022. I wrote about the incident at the time, though to recap, 131 Jewish passengers were traveling from New York (JFK) to Frankfurt (FRA) to Budapest (BUD), for an annual memorial event to honor an Orthodox rabbi.
On the initial flight, some number of passengers traveling as part of this group reportedly failed to comply with the mask mandate that was in place, and caused trouble for the crew. That’s of course not cool. The issue is the way that Lufthansa handled this.
Rather than specifically singling out those who weren’t complying, the captain of the flight instead alerted a Lufthansa security duty manager about the misbehavior of passengers on the flight, telling the manager that the passengers causing the issues were connecting to Budapest.
As a result, the security manager placed a “high priority comment” on the itineraries of all passengers connecting to Budapest. With such a comment, passengers can’t board a connecting flight until an employee reads the notes on a reservation.
Every one of the passengers who had such a comment was Jewish, despite many not having done anything wrong, and having booked through different methods. However, there were no exact details in the notes about which passengers had misbehaved, so at the connecting gate, the decision was made to just deny all those passengers boarding.
The gate situation got super messy, as you’d expect, and police were called. A Lufthansa employee even openly admitted how all people had to “pay” for the actions of some passengers.
As the DOT concludes:
Lufthansa took action that had an adverse effect on these passengers whose only affiliation with each other was that they were of the same religion and/or ethnicity. Lufthansa’s actions impacted passengers who did not engage in problematic conduct. OACP finds that, under the totality of the circumstances, Lufthansa’s treatment of the 128 Jewish passengers as a collective group, based on the alleged misconduct of a smaller number of those individuals, constitutes discrimination based on religion in violation of 49 U.S.C. § 40127.
Based on our review of available evidence, we find that Lufthansa’s staff made no meaningful effort to specifically identify and track the individuals who failed to follow crew instructions to abide by the applicable laws and regulations, and to tailor the consequences accordingly. Those efforts could have included obtaining the names and likenesses of the misbehaving passengers and linking them to the seats they were sitting in. To the extent that misbehaving passengers were out of their seats, Lufthansa staff could have tracked which seats were empty and then identified which passengers took those seats. While these processes may not have been perfect, they would have resulted in tracking the individuals about whom Lufthansa had concerns and would have significantly reduced the likelihood that innocent passengers would be denied boarding for discriminatory reasons. Instead, Lufthansa has failed to show that its crew took any action to document the identities of specific passengers who engaged in misconduct.
Hopefully Lufthansa has now learned its lesson
This story has gotten a ton of attention over the past couple of years, so it’s interesting to see the DOT levying a fine now. In addition to Lufthansa’s CEO personally issuing an apology for what happened, Lufthansa also provided monetary compensation to passengers for the incident. Lufthansa paid $21,000 to each passenger who was impacted by this denied boarding situation.
This includes a settlement of $20,000, plus $1,000 to cover expenses resulting from being denied boarding. The law firm that negotiated the settlement reportedly took 18% of that. Based on the number of passengers involved, that’s well over $2.5 million in compensation, and that’s before the DOT fine.
I would hope that Lufthansa has learned its lesson at this point. The way the airline went about handling this situation was reprehensible, and it’s really unfortunate that not a single Lufthansa employee throughout this whole process thought “hmm, maybe this isn’t the best way to go about this.”
Bottom line
The US Department of Transportation has fined Lufthansa $4 million for discriminating against Jewish passengers in May 2022. Some number of passengers failed to follow mask requirements on a New York to Frankfurt flight. When it was discovered that those passengers were connecting to Budapest, the decision was made to deny boarding to all passengers on a similar itinerary.
The one thing those passengers all had in common was that they were Jewish. Now Lufthansa is (fairly) paying the price for this…
What do you make of the DOT’s fine against Lufthansa?
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.
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?
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?
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)
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.
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...
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.
Will American Airlines be similarly fined for collectively discriminating against those five unconnected African Americans who were removed from their flight earlier this year?
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.)
I agree with your sentiments Brutus!
Animal Farm. I had to study the book at school. An excellent read.
@Madrid: yes they will be
But how did they know which passengers were Jewish ?
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.
@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
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?
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.
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.
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.
As the journey (booking locator) originated in the US, the DOT reserves the right to take action.
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
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.
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.
@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.
@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.
@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.
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.
Eskimo makes Tim Dunn look like a genius.
Dave is a great example for the product of being brainwashed by propaganda.
There have been cases, however you’re not aware of everyone as they don’t make the media. Not just the US.
Typical of the nonsense from Jewish passengers!!
More Reparations & weapons coming !
@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.
Collective punishment. Why does that sound so familiar to me?
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...
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.
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?
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.
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...
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.
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.
I agree. This is why I, like Zack, stand for the Freedom Fighters in Palestine & Lebanon.
not that hard to wear a mask i'm with lufthansa on this one
I see you didn't even bother to read the article.
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.
I have seen one rudest airline employees.
Turkish Airlines employees are the worst when something is going wrong.
The comment was for all passengers connecting to Budapest, not all Jewish passengers. Indeed slow news day in the Land of Lucky.
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?
Clicks?
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,...
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.
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?
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?
Sounds like the employees involved should be sued and fined, not Lufthansa itself.
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.
"Victim" much?
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.
Idiot! Your comment is not even worth to argue about it!
You piece of s—t
@Shlomo Shekelbergstein What an incredibly ignorant and false comment. Shame on you.
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..
Oh my goodness. $4 million dollars. We vill never do zis again.
@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.
No as the journey originated ex the US and is covered by the DOT. The litigation was brought in the US.
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.
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.
I sometimes think it’s just a slow day in Miami and everything has been said about credit cards, Hyatt,American,and breakfast.
Eh, lets be honest, Tim deserves whatever clapback he gets in the comments section.
Dim Tunn
Don't forget
3. the comments whining about other comments regarding Tim Dunn including from Tim Dunn himself.
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.
Important to point out that most people were not traveling as part of a group. There either were specifically targeted based on their religion.
They were “targeted” based on their destination. The employee added a blanket note for all passengers to Budapest.
I'm sure y'all are going to be totally normal on this comment section
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
Mind boggling this happened, even more shocking (or maybe not) on a German airline with their history.
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.
yes, lets blame this on the victims of course
My thoughts exactly.
Also Judges, AG, Most Politicians!
be the comments will be fun on this one
18% of 20,000 is 3600, so the remaining amount is 16,400 dollars.