Depending on the circumstances, trying to get a refund from some places can be…not easy. They’ll make you jump through a bajillion hoops and even after you’ve jumped through them all, they’ll still fight you tooth and nail, unless there are very specific circumstances involved.
Take airlines, for example. Trying to get a refund from them for an unused flight typically might not be easy at all. But one of those special circumstances where you might actually be able to get a refund for a situation like that is if you die. Well, I mean, maybe your family would get the refund. Because under that circumstance, of course, it’s not as if you’re going to be flying.
A $50 Refund Worth Dying For?
With that concept in mind, an entrepreneurial YouTube influencer (it’s always the influencers…) tried a bold scheme to get a refund from his airline when he couldn’t take his flight and they wouldn’t give him a refund.
This was a flight that cost about $50, by the way. But hey, YouTubers gotta eat, right?
The influencer, a 30-year-old guy in the UK named Max Fosh, explained how he had booked a flight out of London two months earlier (his lawyers advised him not to name the airline), but then wasn’t able to take it.
Upon requesting a refund, the airline refused. As airlines are wont to do.
Plotting His Own “Death”
But Fosh, who described himself as, “Incredibly petty,” decided to try to get the money back another way.
Y’see, he discovered that, at least in the UK, airlines will only offer cash refunds if someone is dead.
“Airlines will only provide cash refunds if passengers are dead,” Fosh said. “So, I needed to die. This is a story of how I traveled to another country, held my own funeral, and was legally declared dead, all to get back £37.28 [about $50] from the big bad airlines.”
The video involved him trying to figure out how he could get around the death clause. That included pondering if he could stop his heart for a couple of seconds and technically be declared dead. Then he considered changing his name to the same name as someone who was about to die.
And then, brain explosion – the airline’s Terms & Conditions explained that he only needed a death certificate in order to be classified as dead.
So while he was still alive, he simply had to find someplace that would be willing to decree him as dead. Well sure, THAT’S gotta be easy enough, right? Yeah, not so much.
Enter the Principality of Seborga
After contacting embassies and consulates of multiple countries and fringe nations, Fosh finally got a response from the Principality of Seborga, a small (14 km² / 5.41 sq. miles) commune and self-proclaimed principality that’s situated in the Imperia Province in Liguria, Italy.
PC: public domain
Seborga is not recognized as a country but its residents still claim independence, to the point of having their own flag, currency and royalty.
Fosh suggested that his fight with a big airline, “seemed to resonate with the Princess, and Seborga’s fight for independence. So she kindly agreed to sign a special, one-off death certificate.” Even though he was very much still alive.
Princess Menegatto signing Max Fosh’s death certificate
A representative for Seborga confirmed in a statement to People that Princess Menegatto did indeed meet with Fosh, and show him around the Principality. But they clarified that, “As for the matter of the death certificate, we took part in the idea of Max Fosh and cooperated with him and his team for entertainment/content purposes only.”
The Fake Funeral
To improve the authenticity of his “death,” Fosh also staged his own funeral, at which his editor gave a eulogy. It was attended by three hired “mourners.”
Fake death completed, he sent a copy of his death certificate to the airline.
According to Fosh, he heard back from the airline about 5 days later. They were apparently satisfied with the (*cough* premature *cough*) report of his death and were prepared to send him a refund. They just needed his bank details.
The Plan Falls Apart
That’s when Fosh consulted with his lawyer about the whole escapade. That’s also when the whole big, beautiful plan went south. His lawyer said that although not technically fraud (because he wasn’t impersonating someone else, and wasn’t using the death certificate for any sort of malicious gain), taking the money would be classified as fraudulent under the UK’s Fraud Act 2006.
The lawyer said, “Normally, I would let you, but this time, I really have to put my foot down here.”
Fosh then withdrew his request to get the refund.
Curses, foiled again.
Here’s Fosh’s video of how it all went down.
Don’t try this at home, kids.
And if you’ve gotten this far, yes, Fosh IS the guy who pranked thousands of London Gatwick passengers a few years back.
Feature Image of Fake Funeral (May, 2007): meigooni / flickr / CC BY 2.0
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