jdub

Hello fellow avaition fans, here is my guide to "WIN" Airline Empires by valuation. Some will not like this post, but these are the things spamliners are doing against you to win. I do not do all these things myself, as I consider myself a polite spammer, but here is what the big spamliners do. I have never won, so take this with a grain of salt, although I am in first in 02 currently and have been in the top 3 twice before when I had to quit. I also have a top finish by repuation.

Early notes:

# This is not a guide for playing, this is a guide to win by valuation as I understand it.

# You will not be in the top valuation if you do not have time to commit to the game. You must be able to check in to the game at a minimum of 5-10 times a day, and commit at least an hour a day if you are quick. It will probally take more than 2-3 total hours a day for a few months!

# Start in a world with an airline that you can bankrupt if nesessary, and use this airline to scout the game world. If you want to start for example in Barcelona (BCN) and 3 other airlines have HQ's there, bankrupt your airline. Start again with a new airline and pick a new HQ, if your choice is empty then great you are good to go. Avoid competition if at all possible, this is important. You can play and win with other airlines at your HQ, and most large airports will have other players. Pick the best airport available.

# Follow the steps in order, you need to set IFS and configurations before you set a route,

# Deep down this is a math game, not an airline game. Passengers do not care about the speed or type of aircraft. mainly they care about the price.

# Some of the steps are for newer players.

1. Easy, start an airline, and start it before the game world begins. You can win if you join a game world later on, but it makes it much harder to win. Pick any name for your airline and click "Start New Airline"

2. Choose a starting airplane and home airport. Click "Confirm starting aircraft and Home Airport"

3. On the left side bar click "Airline Options", then click the human resources tab.

4. Change all "Median Pay Rate" to $7 for every position, and set "reserves" to 0%.

4. Create "Scam" In-Flight Serivices (IFS)

5. Set every option "Quality" to worst and "Price" to highest $ allowed. Click on "Step 2" tab.

6. Click on all the options and then set the highest price, click "View Costs and Rating"

7. Name your "IFS" and click "create".

8. Click "Configure In-Flight Services" and set all options to the name you gave to the scam "IFS" Don't forget to click "Set" when done.

9. Only now can you add flights to your plane(s), if you started a new game then you will not have access to "Used Aircraft". Start with the busiest route available. Look for cheap gates, lots of passengers and AVOID ANY COMPETITION IF POSSIBLE, and it is possible.  Click on the "Browse Airports" tab and enter airplane information to view available routes.

10. Look for empty routes by clicking the "Research" tab, choose an EMPTY route with NO COMPETITION and RAISE PRICES, leave no hours available on your plane and do not configure it unless it holds max passengers in any combination. This does two things, it makes you more $ and it also shows when anyone challenges your routes as your load factor will drop so low that it will show on your routes page as an empty or low load flight on the routes screen (see step 13 below).  I use  this config for my planes, (1) first class (6) business class and (xxx) coach class. I.E. on the MD-83 purchased earlier I would use one of the flowing configs (2-12-147), probally this one ->>> (3-18-135). A lot of spamliners use no first class, some use no business class. This is something for you to figure out in the world you are playing. Avoid reconfiguring aircraft if at all possible. RAISE YOUR FARES!!!!!!!!!!!!!! do not raise them by $20-$100, there is a quirck in the game, double or triple your fares. On flights with no compition and when you fly 1/2 to 1/3 of the available seats on the routes you can easily double the coach fare. See below for example.

11. Once again raise the FARES!!!

12. Add to your fleet aggressively. Configure your planes BEFORE you order them this will save you money.

13. Check on your "Routes" tab a few times a day. Makes sure you planes are "in the green"

14. If your routes are not in the green adjust your prices.

15. Since my fares were higher and making me money, I noticed when someone got on the same route. Prices were then adjusted and flights added if they are needed.

Additional Tips from this point on:

# Return any unsed gates immediately, especially after you have set your first plane(s) routes early in the game.

# Careful with bonds, you can afford to pay them all by now. But, If too many are issued you cannot lease planes, stay under $15 million and you should be ok.

# in the begining of the game order many types of planes. DO NOT order planes with very low passenger counts, nothing under about 80 seats, and look for aircract that have a LOW FUEL FLOW. Minimize your fleet types later in the game.

# Buy terminals EARLY in the game, if you have 3 or more gates at an airport this is a good time to buy a terminal.

# Hubs are good to help fill up routes if you focus in a hub city, but you should derfisify and and not limit your airline to a single city, as it can be raided. Manage your hubs and do not add to many as they double your costs.

# Hubs create connecting passengers, but the pay half the fare. You can see this on the route info, under the price is a bar, green is full paying passengers, blue is conecting passengers. Adjust for most profit.

# I Do not know any good in-flight entertainment (IFE) scam, hopefully someone will let us know.

# You can win and/or have a successful airline without being a jerk, if the demand is 500 coach seats and you schedule 3000 coach seats, you are being a jerk. This does not mean you should not defend your routes if another airline is aggressive. Be aggressive back, but do not pick on smaller airlines who are only trying to compete on a route from their hub.  You will not make as much money and you are being a jerk. I can't stop you from being a jerk if you want to, but you are still a jerk if you do.

# Check on other airlines to see if they are still active. If another airline player has not logged in for a week you can poach their routes. Do this by clicking on the airline and clicking "view player profile" on the top of the page.

# Check the "Used aircraft" tab a lot, planes come up for sale with about 1 minute to go before the next day. Spamliners will troll the used aircraft tab when the day has less than 2 minutes and buy airplanes before you can lease or buy them, so you must be quick. If you do not check this tab often you will be beat, and planes might be bought before you even notice they are for sale. Also, check the used aircraft tab ramdomly as sometimes planes show up at strange times.

# Remember this is a game for fun, do not be a troll and mess with the little guy. Some people here are just trying to run a small airline, you can win without bulldozing them. Mess with the big airlines, not the little ones.

# Buy your planes and keep them a long time, at least 10 years.

# Join the biggest alliance that will take you, some are snobby and will not let you in. You need 600 destinations in your alliance, that is the only important thing. It can take 5-10 years for your alliance to reach this goal.

# Making tons of cash? Scrap old planes insted of selling them, you might lose some money, but that plane will not be purchased by your competition and then be competing against you on your routes. (not a nice way to play)

# Want to win by repuation too? That is much easier, just cheat and figure it out.

And here a few screen shots from my current game to show I have somewhat of an idea of what I am talking about. I am Coco BumBum, my little brother picked the name BTW. Game is from 1960-1990, currently 9 years into game. I still could be caught, but glad to be ahead for now.

This is the best guide I can give right now, hopefully it helps your game, or maybe it just shows you how the top airline is beating you. I meant to give this partial guide in a good way, sorry to the players who do not like a guide like this. I know it also has some flaws, I will try and keep it updated as people let me know better ways to play for the "win".

I do not follow most of the advice in this guide, it just that, a guide for interested players and for those who want to know the "secrets" of the spamliners.

Grammar and spelling errors are on purpose, deal with it.

Good Luck Airliners!