“We Don’t Want to Kill You Yet” — Man Gets Death Certificate for Himself for Flight Refund

A popular YouTuber declared himself legally dead in order to get a refund from an airline. Max Fosh (@Max Fosh) was miffed that a travel company wouldn't refund him for the money he spent on a flight he was unable to board. Which prompted him to look for exceptions to this no-refund policy. He posted a video delineating how he was able to get this done, but warned others not to do the same.

Max's video begins with a staged funeral procession. Someone at a pulpit claims that Max Fosh is dead, prompting the YouTuber to emerge from a casket, punctuating the statement with an asterisk: "technically," he states.

He explains that he's staging a funeral for himself as a means of "get[ting] back at an airline."

According to Max, he couldn't board a flight that he had booked, and when he applied for a refund, the airline wouldn't give him his money back despite not making the flight. Oftentimes, the only time an airline will ever give a "cash refund," he states in his video, is if a passenger can prove they're dead.

Of course, Max could've booked an option with an airline that allows him a full refund of his ticket if he's unable to board the flight. However, these often come with premium charges.

The amount of money Max was trying to get back wasn't exactly a high number, but rather a cheeky exercise in engaging in a loophole as a means of hitting back at an airline.

The amount that Max was refunded? $50.70. In order for him to stage his own death, Max traveled to the Principality of Seborga to get his official certificate of death.

He teases at the start of the video that he may found himself in some hot water as a result of the gag. Speaking with an adviser on the phone, he is told that while he's technically not committing fraud, what he's doing is fraudulent.

His first option was seeing what someone would need to do in order to temporarily die, like stopping his heartbeat. So he searched how long that would take, and the results yielded that he'd have to do so for four minutes. This way, he can legally be pronounced dead.

However, the side effects, such as permanent brain damage, weren't ones that he wanted to risk. This prompted him to quickly abandon this idea. He then proposed that he could possibly find someone who is about to die and then convince them to change their name to Max Fosh.

This way he could then present a death certificate to the airline, but he quickly discounted this idea as being "insane."

After further scrutinizing the terms and conditions of the airline's refund policy, he noticed that it simply states he needs to get a death certificate.

However, the airline doesn't indicate where the death certificate needs to come from.

This led Max to explore the possibility of traveling to another country and acquiring a death certificate for himself there. He adds that his passion for revenge against the airline, which remains unnamed, was fueled by "pettiness" and that it isn't the first time he's reached out to foreign government offices, either.

In fact, he was able to get a Presidential pardon from the Biden administration for a crime he reportedly committed in 2009.

Furthermore, Max stated that a quick query on any major search engine will likely culminate in a myriad of stories from folks who've lamented the thousands of dollars they've lost in airlines refusing to refund their tickets.

His video, it seems, appears to be more of an issue of raising awareness about this common practice in the airline industry. The YouTuber ultimately did receive a response to his query from the Principality of Seborga. Located about 22 miles away from Monaco, Seborga is listed as a "micronation" and is a northwestern Italian Province of Imperia in Liguria.

Furthermore, it's situated near the border of France, and its claims about sovereignty are rooted in "unproven claims about territorial settlements made by the Congress of Vienna after the Napoleonic Wars," according to the country's Wikipedia page.

However, this assessment online doesn't tell the whole story. As Max does point out that Seborga does indeed have its own government, its own flag, and its own currency. Which sure makes it sound like it's its own sovereign nation.

He said that the government had no qualms with providing him with a death certificate proving that he is dead.

Next, Max calls the area a "fantastic place" and is astounded by its picturesque views. Upon arriving in the region, the Princess of Seborga greets him and has him meet her team. In order to anoint his arrival in Seborga, the country's ceremonial cannon is fired, prompting Max to inquire about its safety.

After asking where the best place to stand is, the Princess tells him, "Not in front, we don't want to kill you yet," she quips. Next, Seborga's two-minute national anthem is played, as everyone stands in silence.

He is taken on a tour of Seborga, which includes him being tied up in one of the area's prisons by Seborga's minister of defense.

Max then tries out a few corny jokes on some people in the area, to see if any of them would get a chuckle. This was a substitute for his faux death to christen his death certificate.

You might be wondering why the Principality would agree to give Max this official piece of documentation, and as it turns out, the Princess sympathized with his plight against airlines.

This is due to Seborga's fight for independence. With the death certificate in tow, Max sent out the death certificate to the airline and within five days, received an email with a link allowing him to process his full refund.

However, before doing so, he decided to hit up his lawyer to find out if there was any backlash he could receive for doing so.

The video then cuts to his lawyer saying, "No," repeatedly on the phone. Max then went on to state his legal counsel relayed "in no uncertain terms that [Max] shouldn't do this." To cap off the video, the YouTuber indicated that even though it's his money, it's not considered fraud.

However, he opted not to reclaim the funds because his lawyer was adamant about him not doing so. Furthermore, he cautioned anyone else viewing his video to not try this for themselves, either.