Edda Elisa Pilz says a gate agent required her to zip a jacket over her sportswear before she could board.
BERLIN — A German fitness influencer says a Lufthansa gate agent temporarily stopped her from boarding a flight from Berlin to Austria because of her athletic clothing, then allowed her aboard after she put on and fully zipped a jacket over a sports bra-style top and cycling shorts.
Edda Elisa Pilz described the June encounter in a social media video that spread widely online and prompted Lufthansa to review the incident. Pilz said an employee at Berlin Brandenburg Airport objected to her outfit as she approached the gate and repeatedly characterized her as being naked. Lufthansa later said the wording Pilz described did not meet its communication standards, while also defending employees’ discretion to assess passenger clothing. The airline has not independently confirmed every detail of Pilz’s account.
Pilz said she was traveling during unusually hot weather, with temperatures around 30 degrees Celsius, or 86 degrees Fahrenheit. She wore fitted shorts and an athletic top similar to clothing commonly used for exercise. According to her account, a gate employee stopped her as her boarding pass was being checked and told her she could not enter the aircraft dressed that way. Pilz said she asked what she was expected to wear and was told her sportswear did not qualify as appropriate clothing for the flight.
She then retrieved a jacket and put it on, according to her account. Pilz said the employee required her to zip it completely before allowing her through the gate. She ultimately boarded the flight, meaning reports describing her as permanently banned or completely denied travel overstate what happened based on the available information. Her claim is that she was temporarily prevented from boarding until she covered the clothing that had drawn the employee’s objection.
Pilz also alleged that the employee blamed her for delaying the boarding process. She disputed that characterization and said she had been asking for an explanation because she was unaware of a specific Lufthansa rule prohibiting the outfit. Pilz said she could accept airline requirements but objected to how the employee communicated them. She also questioned whether dress expectations were being applied consistently after observing male passengers in summer clothing.
Lufthansa responded after Pilz’s video drew international attention. The airline said it takes reports of possible irregularities in passenger treatment seriously and reviews such incidents internally. It said the term Pilz alleged was used to describe her did not correspond with Lufthansa’s standards. At the same time, the company said it expects passengers to dress in a way appropriate to public air travel and in a manner that does not negatively affect the well-being of travelers from different cultural backgrounds.
Lufthansa’s published General Conditions of Carriage give the airline authority to refuse transportation in several circumstances, including when carrying a passenger could significantly affect the safety, security, health or well-being of others. The conditions reviewed do not set out a detailed passenger dress code that specifically names sports bras, cycling shorts or other individual garments. That leaves some judgment to airline personnel when determining whether clothing or passenger conduct presents a problem.
The distinction became central to the dispute because Pilz did not argue that airlines can never impose standards. Instead, she questioned what she considered an unclear rule and the manner in which it was enforced. Lufthansa, for its part, has emphasized that its employees make judgments within the framework of its conditions of carriage. The company did not publicly identify the employee involved, and reports reviewed did not establish whether disciplinary action was taken.
The episode drew attention beyond Germany after Pilz’s account circulated across Instagram, TikTok and international news outlets. Pilz was already known online for fitness and lifestyle content and had appeared on German reality television. Some coverage described the incident as a ban from the flight, but subsequent accounts make clear that she was able to travel after covering her upper body with the zipped jacket.
About 10 days after the disputed encounter, Pilz posted another video while preparing to fly from Munich in sportswear, according to a TF1 Info review of the incident. The publication reported that she apparently did not encounter the same boarding problem on that trip. That later experience does not establish a companywide dress standard, but it highlighted the discretion involved when individual airline employees assess passenger clothing.
Lufthansa said the original encounter was being reviewed internally. No public finding from that review was identified in the latest reports examined, leaving unresolved whether the airline determined that its employee properly applied company expectations or whether it planned any changes to how clothing concerns are communicated to passengers.
Author note: Last updated September 4, 2026.