A Munich District Court has ordered a man to pay Lufthansa $2,705 for lounge food consumption. The man, whose name was not released, purchased a one-way, refundable, business class ticket from Munich to Zurich, but never actually flew anywhere. Instead, the man used the same ticket more than 35 times to gain access to the Lufthansa Business Class Lounge in Munich and consumed free food an alcohol. The man repeatedly rescheduled his flight for future dates after visiting the lounge.
The one-way ticket cost 744 Euros (around $1,010 USD). After a year, Lufthansa fully refunded the cost of the one-way business class ticket. The man then attempted to purchase a second ticket and allegedly planned to attempt the same scheme again. Lufthansa decided to prosecute after the man purchased the second ticket.
The court ordered the man to pay around 55 Euro per visit, equaling more than twice the cost of the ticket he’d purchased.
There are a lot of copy-cats in the travel world these days, I’m sure someone else will try a similar scheme but be forewarned, the German courts have ruled in the favor of the airline, at least in this case.
Good! This guy’s a sleazeball and got what he deserved!