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Home  >  Law In Travel • Lufthansa  >  Lufthansa Faces Lawsuit After Booting Passenger From First Class Seat
Law In TravelLufthansa

Lufthansa Faces Lawsuit After Booting Passenger From First Class Seat

Matthew Klint Posted onJuly 9, 2021July 9, 2021 25 Comments

A fascinating lawsuit has been filed in Frankfurt against Lufthansa today impacting seat assignments, bait-and-switch sales tactics, terms and conditions, and the first class cabin on the 747-8.

Lufthansa First Class Lawsuit: Are Seat Assignments Guaranteed?

With quarantine-free travel to much of Europe now available to Germans, Lufthansa added widebody Airbus A350-900 and Boeing 747-8 service to Palma de Mallorca, one of the most popular destinations for German tourists in Spain.

When Lufthansa put the seats on sale, it offered business class passengers the chance to reserve seats in first class and many paid more to get on these particular aircraft precisely for that reason.

“The Boeing 747-8 is the largest aircraft that Lufthansa can currently use. This means that 364 instead of the previous 215 seats can be offered. 88 seats in Business Class (including First Class) and 276 seats in Economy Class (including Premium Economy) are for sale.”

While business class tickets on narrowbody Lufthansa aircraft and other airlines cost about €300 round-trip, Lufthansa charged around €1,000 EUR to fly on the 747-8.

Several days after booking, customers who had reserved first class seats found themselves re-assigned to business class.

Lufthansa cites its contract of carriage as giving it the authority not to honor seat assignments.

§5.4.3 We are entitled to reassign seats at any time, even after boarding the aircraft. This may be necessary for security or operational reasons. If you have paid for a previous seat reservation and the flight is canceled or the seat is reassigned for security or operational reasons, we will reimburse you for the seat reservation fee. A reimbursement will not be made if you do not take the flight voluntarily, rebook or upgrade to a different class of transport or if you provided us with incorrect information about the ability to sit at the emergency exit when booking.

Nevertheless, Dr. Mattias Böse has sued Lufthansa in a Frankfurt court today over the seat assignment change on behalf of his impacted client.

#Lufthansa hat Passagiere auf Sonderflügen n. Malle v bestätigten First-Class Sitzplätzen in die Business Class verbannt, verweist auf Beförderungsbedingungen.

Für Mdt. habe ich heute die Klage beim Amtsgericht Frankfurt erhoben.#klagenhilft#Verbraucherrecht#Fluggastrechte

— Dr. Matthias Böse (@dr_boese) July 8, 2021

The central issue to me is one of detrimental reliance (promissory estoppel) in the common law, better known as Culpa in contrahendo (§311 of the German civil code [BGB]).

Yes, there is a contractual language that seems to give Lufthansa the power to change seat assignments at will, but the analysis must not end there. Such language comes into conflict with the idea that Lufthansa advertised a certain seat for a certain price, accepted money for that seat (indeed, a premium over other seats), then decided to move passengers to far inferior seats without notice or compensation.

It’s called bait-and-switch and the fine print of a contract of carriage should not shield Lufthansa or any airline from such a disproportionate action that frustrates the reasonable expectations of a customer.

Is it not inherently reasonable for a guest to see Lufthansa advertise a first class seat for sale, pay the asking price, and expect to keep it? It’s not like Lufthansa can add contractual language in fine print that you cannot sue the airline if its pilots are drunk and crash the plane. There are limits to adhesion contracts.

I am grateful Dr. Böse is suing to hold Lufthansa accountable and cannot believe that Lufthansa elected to be so stingy.

How stingy? It is now selling first class seats on those 747-8…for an additional €129.

#penny_wise_pound_foolish


H/T: YHBU // image: Lufthansa

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About Author

Matthew Klint

Matthew is an avid traveler who calls Los Angeles home. Each year he travels more than 200,000 miles by air and has visited more than 135 countries. Working both in the aviation industry and as a travel consultant, Matthew has been featured in major media outlets around the world and uses his Live and Let's Fly blog to share the latest news in the airline industry, commentary on frequent flyer programs, and detailed reports of his worldwide travel.

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25 Comments

  1. Greg Reply
    July 9, 2021 at 11:47 am

    The $1000 vs $300 isn’t a valid comparison given he ultimately sat in a far superior seat to the $300 narrowbody comparison.

    I’m guessing getting a refund of the $129 later difference between first and biz seats wouldn’t have satisfied him.

    • Dr. Matthias Böse Reply
      July 10, 2021 at 12:55 am

      My client lives in the Duesseldorf-Region: it would have been way more convenient to take a Condor widebody-flight to PMI from DUS with (inferior) lie-flat business class and also way cheaper.

  2. PM Reply
    July 9, 2021 at 12:07 pm

    I wish Dr Böse and his client good luck. LH seems to be losing the plot, trying to be a low-cost carrier and a ‘five-star’ (ha ha) luxury airline at the same time. Its business class has never been stellar, but in my view it has now become the absolute worst European ‘premium’ product:

    – Lounge access is a lottery- contract lounge arrangements were meant to be ‘suspended until the end of 2020’. The suspension lasted much longer (without any comms being issued), and now they have revived the agreements in some, but by no means all, airports.
    – Food is also a lottery. From/to MAD you get a hot meal most of the time- AGP and SCQ flights are longer but you only get a couple of slices of ham.
    – You get zero miles on most programmes with P-class fares. Z-class fares sometimes are only marginally more expensive, but you can’t buy them unless you call, and then you have to argue with them to try and avoid the call centre fee.
    – There is no additional legroom towards the front of the plane (that’s a good three inches less than what you’ll find on the likes of Aegean).
    – No wardrobes or espresso machines are to be found.

    It’s no wonder they are having to sell tickets at rock bottom prices- I saw some routes going for under €200 return. If nothing else, that’s well worth it for anyone who needs to travel with 60+ kilos of luggage.

  3. robbo Reply
    July 9, 2021 at 12:14 pm

    Lets not talk about the war

    • Shelley Lorber Reply
      July 10, 2021 at 10:46 pm

      How are you Basil Fawlty.

  4. Joe Hunter Reply
    July 9, 2021 at 1:50 pm

    Laughthansa….. LOL. Worst customer service ever!

  5. tarzan Reply
    July 9, 2021 at 4:09 pm

    Lufthansa also does the bait and switch on coach seats. What they do is add extra flights that they do not intend to actually fly. We paid extra for tickets from SFO to BZG that had favorable flight times, layovers, and the fewest flight hours. They canceled our flights 4 times in 6 months and we ended up with horrible tickets that would have been much cheaper if we would have bought them originally. They refused to compensate us for the difference and were less than helpful. We spent around 4 hours on the phone just to get the crappy replacement flight. NEVER FLY LUFTHANSA!!!!!!

  6. Bubba Reply
    July 9, 2021 at 4:46 pm

    I have a colleague who had a similar experience to Tarzan with an upcoming LH flight — so bad they wanted to cancel the last leg and drive it instead, only to be told they’d have to pay a last-minute ticket surcharge to do so.
    In short, fly LH at your own risk. I’ll pick airlines that don’t like to cancel flights

  7. M Jones Reply
    July 9, 2021 at 4:51 pm

    Seems like travel Firms be they Airlines, Car Rental or some Hotels have now just abandoned any attempt to be fair, reasonable or ethical with their Customers, just working on the concept that they won’t get sued for any misdemeanor and to even get through to them to discuss is a nightmare scenario. People act in irrational ways when desperate and we all know how desperate these Travel Providers have become!

  8. Bo To Reply
    July 9, 2021 at 5:45 pm

    People don’t read, they just tick “I agree with terms and conditions”, but when something like this happens, they seem to not agree with terms and conditions. Interesting.
    Differences between First and Business class on wide bodies isn’t much, plus they get back fare difference. There’s no case here. Dr Böse seems like a d-bag anyway.

    • Dr. Matthias Böse Reply
      July 10, 2021 at 12:50 am

      T&Cs are not like coding: In german civil las, we have a tight framework for consumer protection that helps d-bags like me to win those cases against big companies with a „too big to fail“-attitude as their T&Cs are simply not legally binding

    • Alan stewart Reply
      July 10, 2021 at 10:43 pm

      Is merely checking a box without having a meaningful opportunity to understand the terms “agreeing”? Most of these T and Cs would require a lawyer just to explain to a consumer what they are “agreeing” to

    • Shelley Lorber Reply
      July 10, 2021 at 10:51 pm

      How could you cast such a horrible comment without knowing the man. Grow up and keep your negative comments to yourself. Didn’t your Mother teach you any manners. If so your Mother might be embarressed of your comments.

  9. observer Reply
    July 9, 2021 at 8:55 pm

    LH is a stingiest and least customer friendly airline, bar none!

    They have change 4 times tickets I boutgh for my kids. Their Miles and More program is joke if not laughable attempt to lure people into the trap..
    Good luck to redeem any miles and be ready to pay heavy taxes for your ” free” ticket. Approximately 50% of the nominal fare..
    After years of loyalty , i took my business to AF/KLM…

  10. Alan B Reply
    July 10, 2021 at 2:27 am

    He paid for a business class lie-flat seat. He was reassigned to a business class lie-flat seat. If he’d originally paid the extra €129 to be in first class, then I might have an ounce of sympathy. However, he booked it thinking he was going to get something for nothing, and that’s not the way the world works, the precise details of German consumer protection laws notwithstanding. This shouldn’t be a lawsuit, it should be a Twitter rant. The only winners here will be, you guessed it, the lawyers.

    • Matthew Klint Reply
      July 10, 2021 at 2:30 am

      No. When LH incentivizes a purchase by promising a first class seat (by offering it and confirming it) then experiences sellers remorse, there is a problem. I support this lawsuit.

      • Mike Reply
        July 10, 2021 at 6:34 pm

        Yep, caveat venditor indeed. Although I wouldn’t try to shoehorn common law concepts to a situation that is likely codified in civil/continental law. Dr Böse will likely rely on abusive adhesion clauses being null & void under German law, and on consumer laws on false advertising. Which is just as well. Wish him all the best.

        • Alan stewart Reply
          July 10, 2021 at 10:51 pm

          Agreed. Promissory estoppel doesn’t really come into play here because there was no detrimental reliance. Regardless PE is an alternative theory of contract liability and here there is actually a contract. Whether the terms are enforceable is another matter…

    • Shelley Lorber Reply
      July 10, 2021 at 10:54 pm

      People the front of the plane gets there the same time the back gets there who cares. You all arrive at the same time.

  11. emercycrite Reply
    July 10, 2021 at 5:23 am

    Looking forward to seeing the outcome.

  12. Viennois Reply
    July 10, 2021 at 11:25 am

    Lufthansa marketed them as business class. They paid for business. They were never entitled to those seasts. Yes it was a sh*t move by LH to remove them after the fact, but hardly enough to sue them. Over what? The fact, that they paid more for a product, that was not for sale?

  13. Steve Reply
    July 10, 2021 at 10:19 pm

    The right doesn’t extend to a different class of service or level of service. Arguably a business class seat is the not the the same class of service as business. It’s clearly not the same level of service. The passenger was either fraudulently induced into purchasing a seat by the airline that they had no plans of providing or the airline broke their contract to provide that they offered for sale.

    Either way I think the customer has a good case.

  14. Richard de Lagarde Reply
    July 11, 2021 at 3:58 am

    The way I see it as an outsider, the way I see it both Lufthansa’s action and their client’s reaction are little more that a reflection of a typical German trait, i.e., arrogance.

    Result: Bad PR for the airline; waste of the court’s time by the client; opportunistic lawyering. Case dismissed.

  15. Max Reply
    July 12, 2021 at 5:49 am

    It’s a 2.5 hrs flight – and the passenger booked business class, not first class, in the first place (no pun intended)…. case seems preposterous and immature by the claimant, but a good business move for the lawyer:
    LH is not precluding the passenger from flying business class (as booked) only from sitting in a specific seat if the passenger is unwilling to fork over the 129 Euro surcharge (same class of travel on this flight). There is no harm done to the passenger, objectively, as the passenger gets to fly the route on the date & time in the booked class of travel (!) and was informed of the change in seating prior to the flight & shortly after booking as Matthew indicates. And if the passenger is willing to pay extra and go out of his/her/their way, then why not pay marginally more to sit in a marginally better seat whose benefits hardly matter on such a short flight compared to the inconvenience of traveling from DUS to FRA to PMI. Also, what a strange decision to pay significantly more for the same class of travel and more travel time…
    And presume for a moment that LH would charge extra for a window seat in the upper level of the 748 in business class, one would pay for it because one likes the views and to ride upstairs, and then one gets reassigned to an aisle seat in the middle row on the main deck (or even on a different plane as LH is chaning its flightplan) … Can I sue LH for this even if I get my money back for the unfulfilled service (not getting 84A but 7D instead)? Or can I sue LH for flying me to where I want to go when I want to with an A320 instead of an A321 even if I specifically selected the flight because I am such a huge A321 fan and hate A320s? LH indicated that A321 would be used at the time of booking (flight details header) and they didn’t deliver…cic?
    Thanks for the laugh and good luck!

  16. Pingback: Bait and Switch: Man Sues After Lufthansa Downgrades Him From First Class Seats - View from the Wing

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