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Fitness influencer Edda Elisa Pilz says she was prevented from boarding a Lufthansa flight from Berlin to Austria until she covered up her athletic outfit, alleging an airline employee repeatedly called her “naked” during the encounter as temperatures reached 30 degrees Celsius (86 degrees Fahrenheit).
Pilz, 24, who boasts more than 500,000 followers on both Instagram and TikTok, shared a video describing the confrontation while preparing to board the Lufthansa flight during the summer heatwave. The video has since circulated widely on social media, where Pilz questioned whether the airline has a dress code for passengers and criticized what she described as the employee’s treatment of her.
Pilz said she was waiting to have her boarding pass scanned when a Lufthansa employee stopped her from boarding.
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According to Pilz, the employee told her, “You cannot board like that,” before repeatedly telling her she was “naked.”
Pilz said she was wearing a matching athletic top and shorts and questioned why the outfit was considered inappropriate in the summer heat.
“What am I supposed to put on?” she said in the video. “What should I wear? It is clothing.”
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A Lufthansa aircraft sits at Berlin Brandenburg Airport in Schoenefeld, Germany, on June 4, 2026. A fitness influencer says she was prevented from boarding a Lufthansa flight from Berlin to Austria over her athletic outfit. (Florian Gaertner/Photothek)
According to Pilz, the employee told her she was not wearing “normal clothes” and instructed her to put something over her outfit before she would be allowed to board the aircraft.
Pilz said she put on a jacket but was then told she also had to zip it completely before being allowed to proceed.
She alleged the employee then blamed her for delaying the boarding process.
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A passenger speaks with staff at a Lufthansa service center in Munich on Feb. 12, 2026. A fitness influencer says she was prevented from boarding a Lufthansa flight from Berlin after an employee objected to her athletic outfit. (Malin Wunderlich/picture alliance)
According to Pilz, the employee told her, “Because of you, we are now delayed. Because of you, the whole flight is delayed, because you are holding up all the traffic here.”
Pilz said she replied that she had simply asked for an explanation because she had never heard of an airline dress code.
She also claimed men wearing shorts were allowed to board the same flight without being stopped.
The influencer said the incident was less about whether Lufthansa has a clothing policy than the way she said she was treated by the employee.
“I can accept rules,” she said. “But the attitude was unacceptable.”
Pilz ended the video by directly questioning Lufthansa and asking whether the airline condones that type of customer service, adding that she was waiting for an official response.
Lufthansa’s General Conditions of Carriage do not appear to include a specific passenger dress code. The airline says it may refuse transportation under certain circumstances, including when a passenger’s conduct could significantly affect the “safety and security, the health or wellbeing of other passengers,” or for other operational or security reasons, but the policy does not specifically address athletic clothing.
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Pilz and Lufthansa did not immediately respond to Fox News Digital’s request for comment.
Fox News Digital’s Christina Shaw contributed to this report.
