I have now been playing in the Gatow game world for almost two months and had previously played in Pearl for a few months last year . . . until the need to constantly change my ticket prices individually across all of my routes became extremely tedious and annoying and I got bored with the game and just let my credits run out. The exact same thing is happening now. Obviously as all the other airlines continue to grow, demand is dropping for me on many of my routes. This is fine, and I understand that this an important part of the game, as it is the aspect of competition that makes it exciting. However, I am finding that after I have gone through each and every route and changed the ticket prices accordingly, within a few days I need to go back and repeat this process all over again, as demand is dropping off so quickly for some routes that if I don’t constantly lower the price, the loads will be so low that I lose money on the flights. I did at first try to have a set ticket price over all my routes to make things easier, and this worked for the first few weeks, but as demand starting dropping off very quickly on only some routes, I had no choice but to do what I did in Pearl and adjust each route individually which of course can take hours to do each time. I don’t find that paying attention to a few ‘problem’ routes really works, because out of nowhere demand on another route that will previously have been fine for many weeks will start to drop sharply, so I need to be really careful and monitor and adjust each route all the time. In my specific situation, I mostly have only one flight per day on each route, which of course means much more work for me compared to another player who has many daily frequencies on every route.
I am just wondering if other players are also experiencing the same problem and irritation. I really enjoy playing the game and would like to continue with it but I am finding the constant need for ticket price adjustment a bit too much and that this particular aspect of gameplay is beginning to take up almost all of my time and effort. How are some other players dealing with this? Do you also find that you need to change all your prices every few days? Have you realized perhaps that the drop in demand has more to do with your overall strategy such as things like seating configurations, service levels, route structure and that changing these things can fix the problem of falling demand? Is this just fairly normal in a new game world after a few months and that this is when the real ‘fight’ begins, with so many airlines all getting bigger, not all will be able to survive or continue to expand without the players putting much more effort into the game? If constant price adjustment is just what I am going to need to do at this stage then so be it, but it would be interesting to hear some thoughts or ideas from other players regarding this matter . . .
The whole point of the game is to manage the airline, which includes price setting. If you don't want to spend all the time doing that stuff, you can always set the lowest price at which you can sell the ticket and still make a profit...but then you won't make much money. Any time other players add aircraft to your route, the supply goes up and so the prices come down.
The whole point of the game is to manage the airline, which includes price setting. If you don't want to spend all the time doing that stuff, you can always set the lowest price at which you can sell the ticket and still make a profit...but then you won't make much money. Any time other players add aircraft to your route, the supply goes up and so the prices come down.
Yes, I understand all of that of course . . . but I just want to see if any other players are finding themselves in a similar situation as me i.e. they enjoy the game but are finding the constant need for ticket price adjustment a bit annoying. It's obvious that a few weeks into a new game world the demand is going to start being exhausted and that at such a stage (which is occurring right now in Gatow) it will be make or break for a lot of players as the game increasingly becomes more difficult and requires much more effort than before. Also it would be interesting to hear from other players about how they deal with ticket price adjustment. Do you, for example, change your prices every few days and always keep a close eye on how well your flights are selling or do you perhaps only get around to doing this once every week or so . . . ???
I'm just attempting to encourage a general discussion about this, in hope that I can get something useful out of it.
Ah okay...well personally I check through all of my routes every couple of days. It takes 15-20 minutes to go through them all, but it makes sure I'm on top of things. As long as you do it every 3 days, you'll see how the tickets are selling for the next couple days and be able to adjust accordingly.
I use the "Load Monitoring" and just adjust the ones that are flying below 70%.
I have been experiencing the same thing over the past few weeks. I used to have only about 20-30 routes that had a load of less than 70%, but now the list is so long that I don't bother adjust them individually (it's too time consuming, I agree). Now, I just keep an eye on my overall profit per week and try and expand my network so I can get more transfer passengers on those lower performing routes.
I set low prices and keep adjusting my schedule. It's funnier to look up for connections inbound and outbound than setting prices everytime. I probably have more than 500 routes and don't have time to do it. I seldom change prices.
If you don’t have time, just set the price till you get 99 popularity. then you can focus on adjusting capacity rather than price.
Btw, I still run some routes with loss. Because I need the passenger for transiting to other routes. But in essence I will focus on several trunk route which I frequently adjust its price.
I can totally understand miles_r. I was in a similar situation a year ago.
I started playing on Tempelhof and really enjoyed the game. But after a year or so I was the dominant airline in the country however profit margins kept dropping and I had to adjust ticket prices almost every day. And becuase it was such a huge fleet (more than 600 aircrafts) individually adjusting prices became too time consuming and added frustuation. Eventually I lost interest as I was unable to give the amount of time the game required and I left the game.
But I am back here again because I love it so much :)
I dont know how to manage once the number of aircrafts get substanially big but may be other players with a huge enterprise who successfully do this might be able to offer advise.
The problem is that most of the big players on gatow leasing costs are half or less of what new planes would be. They will continue to lower thier prices because they can and still turn a profit. the ORS/Image/Fleet age boost from new planes is absolutley useless on gatow so if you are using new planes you may want to find a decent airport you can move to ;/
The problem is that most of the big players on gatow leasing costs are half or less of what new planes would be. They will continue to lower thier prices because they can and still turn a profit. the ORS/Image/Fleet age boost from new planes is absolutley useless on gatow so if you are using new planes you may want to find a decent airport you can move to ;/
They pay less for leasing, but they have a higher maintenance cost. Also, it’s not unfair. Whoever came first had the best opportunities. It’s natural.
I can totally understand miles_r. I was in a similar situation a year ago.
I started playing on Tempelhof and really enjoyed the game. But after a year or so I was the dominant airline in the country however profit margins kept dropping and I had to adjust ticket prices almost every day. And becuase it was such a huge fleet (more than 600 aircrafts) individually adjusting prices became too time consuming and added frustuation. Eventually I lost interest as I was unable to give the amount of time the game required and I left the game.
But I am back here again because I love it so much :)
I dont know how to manage once the number of aircrafts get substanially big but may be other players with a huge enterprise who successfully do this might be able to offer advise.
You have to pay attention at oversupply. I’m facing this right now and I’m thinking to reduce my supply a little bit. Also, AGEX is going down. I don’t know if this will be temporarily. It’s pretty much like real life, we don’t know how much our LF% is affected by AGEX (aggregate demand) and supply. We have to discover it by ourselves and adjusting prices is part of this process.
When you reach a scale of more than 15k flights a week, you have to be aware of the time this game will require you. It’s your choice. Instead, you could base your airline at a minor market, like Fiji or Madagascar, and just enjoy the game with no need to adjust prices and schedule all the time. Or even at a major market, but limiting your operations giving priority to efficiency instead of scale.
Thanks VOC for your reply. Have never thought of the affect of AGEX on the number of passengers. Now thinking about it, it is always important to keep it in mind.
AGEX has dropped 10% from its peak. With more airline established, you can expect the compeition will be more intense. Failure to stay above the water will result in bankruptcy. Only the best would previal...
Just to give everyone an update on what I chose to do . . .
. . . . well, I decided to keep on playing, but I completely changed my main hub from an airport with a 6 passenger demand to one with an 8 passenger demand in an area which is surrounded by a lot more high demand airports, I also cancelled all the leases on all of my older aircraft and replaced them with as many brand new aircraft as I could (which does of course mean that my fleet is now half the size). Yes the leasing rates are much higher, but the maintenance is much, much lower, so it more than makes up for the difference. Even if you have ridiculously low leasing rates for old used aircraft, the amount you pay in maintenance for them is astronomical, so I figured out it's just not worth it, at least not for this stage of the game in Gatow where competition is getting fierce. I also changed my seating, previously I was using Standard seats for Economy class and Economy seats for Business Class, I have now changed that so I am using Economy seats for Economy class and Business Basic seats for Business class. Lower density seating just wouldn't have worked with some of the older planes I had, because I wouldn't have been able to make enough money to cover maintenance costs.
. . . and the results . . . AMAZING !!! I really do not have to bother with adjusting fares now AT ALL !!! So In the end, it really did just come down to overall strategy i.e. which airport is your main base, where your airport is located, whether you use new or old planes and what kind of seating you use !!! So if you find your demand is constantly dropping and you continually need to lower ticket prices to account for this, then you are probably doing something wrong, or maybe even a lot of things wrong like I was, so maybe the best option is just to rip it all up and start again . . . and don't be afraid to experiment, I was really unsure about using lower density seating, but I thought, what the hell, just give it a try and see what happens, and it worked !!!