Setting the fare for MULT
One price for the whole network. What the dial trades, how it feeds loyalty and bases, and what bosses do to it. A strategy article for FARELINE, the free airline strategy game.
Revenue is PASSENGERS × FARE × MULT, and the dial moves the first two at once. It does not offer every price. It runs from MAX LOYALTY, which builds all the loyalty your network can build this quarter and earns the most of the prices that do, to MAX REVENUE, the price that earns the most over what is left of the quarter. Both ends are worked out again every month for your network as it stands, and the − and + buttons step the dial toward either end.
Past a line's own price its travellers start to leave, Budget first and Elite last, and under 80% low fares bring new travellers who use the markets up faster. So a price above MAX REVENUE earns less, and a price below MAX LOYALTY builds no more loyalty and earns less too. That is why the dial stops at both ends.
The fare and MULT
The fare is not a part of MULT. It reaches MULT in two ways. The first is the perks that count travellers or full lines, like FULL AIRCRAFT, SHUTTLE and HOME HANGAR. A price that empties seats lowers what they count. The second, and the larger, is loyalty. Travellers are satisfied in full up to 80%, less and less above it, and not at all at 120%. Satisfied travellers build loyalty in the cities you serve.
Loyalty is what opens bases: a city talks about a base at 20. A base that flies counts for HUB DENSITY and CONNECTIONS, the network parts of MULT. Loyalty also raises your leverage at that city. So a dial near MAX LOYALTY in the early years is often a MULT decision, not a revenue one.
The LOYALTY family pays for it directly. There are 8: LOYALTY DIVIDEND, SEASON TICKETS, ANCHOR TENANT, HOMETOWN, MILEAGE RUN, ELITE TIER, AIRPORT LOUNGES and SERVICE AWARDS. Two of them: ELITE TIER: +10% for every city you fly to at loyalty 36 or more (max +30%). HOMETOWN: +1% for every point of loyalty at your HQ past 20 (max +19%).
Reading the dial
The band on the dial runs from violet at MAX LOYALTY to green at MAX REVENUE. Above it the dial shows your price as a share of the market price and the loyalty this quarter credits at that price. The row under it shows the airports that gain at your price, as many as fit, each with its loyalty and what this quarter adds. Loyalty is credited when the quarter ends. Each green tick on the track is a line reaching its own price: past it, that line starts to shed travellers.
When your network changes, the dial keeps its place between the two ends and the price follows. Some months a single price builds the most loyalty and earns the most, often the last month of a quarter, and the dial holds that ONE PRICE until the ends move apart again.
Under 80% the price also brings new travellers, up to +25% at 70%. They fill empty seats but drain the market faster. 80% of what was used comes back each month and all of it when the quarter turns, so a very low price early in a quarter can leave little for its last month.
One pattern to try
In year one, keep the dial at or near MAX LOYALTY on most months. You give up a little revenue and build the loyalty that opens your first bases. When the target is close at the end of a quarter, move it to MAX REVENUE to clear it.
Later, when your bases are in place and loyalty is high, keep it nearer MAX REVENUE. Watch the result on the board, not the dial alone.
Bosses that hit the dial
PRICE WAR: A low-cost rival matches you. Fares 8% lower, and you cannot price above 93%.
FARE CAP: The regulator caps fares. Your price dial stops at 86%.
PRICE FREEZE: The regulator freezes fares where they stand. Your price cannot move this quarter. The dial holds where the quarter found it, so set it the quarter before.
NEW ENTRANT: A new airline undercuts you. Price above 80% and a quarter of the travellers who want your flights fly with it instead.
FUEL SPIKE: Jet fuel doubles overnight. Every fare earns 15% less.
When one of these is the next boss, the shop says so a quarter ahead. Plan the year's fare around it.