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Airline Mogul Forum
Airline Mogul => Game Strategy => Topic started by: peterkirby on April 04, 2009, 01:25:08 am
Title: What's the strategy for meal pricing?
Post by: peterkirby on April 04, 2009, 01:25:08 am
I'm at a loss for figuring out how to "set it and forget it" with my meal pricings so that they rake in the most. I assume that they have a profitability curve similar to the flights, such that at a certain tipping point, changing in either direction results in less income. I've just got no clue what that sweet spot is.
Another question is whether this changes based on the year ingame or any other factors.
Any advice is welcome.
Title: Re: What's the strategy for meal pricing?
Post by: skumfrik on April 04, 2009, 04:36:19 am
I have only noticed higher incomes when adjusting my prices up. They are all sky high, but it seems to be more profitable for me than before I raised them.
Title: Re: What's the strategy for meal pricing?
Post by: peterkirby on April 04, 2009, 05:23:33 am
To set up a test, I am tweaking the meals in the smallest airline I have...
I started by putting $25/per for all services on one route, and $50/per for all services on another route.
Each route carries 12 full seats roundtrip, total 24 passengers per day [hour].
In the first hour, I got $4502 revenue from the 48 passengers. That's $93.79 a head!
(Yeah, I'm not using the euro symbol...sue me :P)
I'll report with further data. For the second day [hour], I've set up both flights to run at $25/per on all service.
Title: Re: What's the strategy for meal pricing?
Post by: peterkirby on April 04, 2009, 05:24:21 am
Oh and the year here is 1921. :-\
Title: Re: What's the strategy for meal pricing?
Post by: peterkirby on April 04, 2009, 05:34:49 am
An initial hypothesis is that travelers purchase 2.5 of the items regardless of pricing...
2.5 x 24 pax x $50 = $3000 2.5 x 24 pax x $25 = $1500
total $4500, off by $2...
... more testing may tell ...
Title: Re: What's the strategy for meal pricing?
Post by: CHR on April 04, 2009, 05:45:39 am
You can work out the best price yourself. Simply adjust the price and then go into the Finance Page (Reports > Finance), and look at misc. revenue. Adjust until you get the highest revenue. The ideal cost for each item should be the same (it was last time I checked), i.e. alcohol = breakfast = lunch = dinner = soft drink etc.
Title: Re: What's the strategy for meal pricing?
Post by: peterkirby on April 04, 2009, 07:06:35 am
'Any changes to the meal and drink prices only affect routes created or edited after the change. In order for other routes to reflect the new price, you must edit the route. '
...looks like the manual is out of date...
Title: Re: What's the strategy for meal pricing?
Post by: peterkirby on April 04, 2009, 07:19:11 am
Ya, looks like I actually just ran two tests at $25 ... and across the whole airline ...
My 3rd test at $60 prices yielded zip ...
Title: Re: What's the strategy for meal pricing?
Post by: peterkirby on April 04, 2009, 09:37:02 pm
Okay, so here are some of the results for my tiny airline... passenger load being held constant...
$25/per any item (meal/snack/drink/alcohol) -> $4502/hour [day]
$30/per item -> $4239/hour
$24/per item -> $4514/hour
$27/per item -> $4440/hour
$23/per item -> $4508/hour
$25/per item [again] -> $4502/hour [still]
This suggests to me that, when setting prices the same across the board, something between $23 and $25 is optimal.
I'm now checking with some mixed prices... starting by increasing the price of dinner only.
Title: Re: What's the strategy for meal pricing?
Post by: peterkirby on April 05, 2009, 04:00:07 am
Raising dinner to $30 while keeping the rest at $24 caused profit to go from $4514/hr down to $4474. So, yes, apparently all the items are basically equivalent. And the optimal price is about $24 each...
Title: Re: What's the strategy for meal pricing?
Post by: Bram Steeman on April 05, 2009, 09:40:13 am
Hi!
Is it also possible to stop this on board service? I make huge loose with this service and would like to stop this. I already make all the prices €0 but the Misc. Expense (Daily) for the end of the month is still €1,620,743 at the beginning of the month...
Thanks!
Title: Re: What's the strategy for meal pricing?
Post by: CHR on April 05, 2009, 09:58:16 am
Misc. expenses includes costs other than food/drinks. Food/drink sales are simply a way to make a bit of extra free money.
Title: Re: What's the strategy for meal pricing?
Post by: dktc on April 05, 2009, 10:04:18 am
€0 for the board services means free service atm. There is no way to stop offering the services atm. I will speak with the developers and see what they could do. As of right now, you are better off charging.
Title: Re: What's the strategy for meal pricing?
Post by: peterkirby on April 05, 2009, 11:35:06 pm
With no meal service on an 11 hour flight, you better hope somebody's brought enough peanuts for everybody. :lol:
Title: Re: What's the strategy for meal pricing?
Post by: Ariadna on May 10, 2009, 10:53:39 pm
Misc. expenses includes costs other than food/drinks.
Do you know what costs exactly they include? Or where to find it?
Title: Re: What's the strategy for meal pricing?
Post by: CHR on May 11, 2009, 11:02:11 am
I think it is just a generic banner for all the other costs in an airline - administration, ticketing, advertising, who knows what else. That's why it is miscellaneous expenses.
Title: Re: What's the strategy for meal pricing?
Post by: Tiger In Training on May 31, 2009, 11:18:56 am
Premium price in 22€. 22.5 and 23 also gave me the same income. After 23 euros income started to drop.
Title: Re: What's the strategy for meal pricing?
Post by: XeniaAirways on June 18, 2009, 08:05:06 am
Sigh... I've always charged 7 euros for meals... -.-
Title: Re: What's the strategy for meal pricing?
Post by: citogaston on June 18, 2009, 09:18:55 pm
If airlines are charging €20 or more for a meal and cocktails, the misc expenses might include having a gourmet chef and professional bartender on every flight.
I think I´ll stick with charging €2 for beans on toast. And anyone who doesn´t like that can get ripped off at the airport before getting on the plane.
Title: Re: What's the strategy for meal pricing?
Post by: Bjecas on May 08, 2010, 03:00:20 am
Is there a way to cut back on Misc Expenses? Because right now, it's soaring high. I pay in excess of €5.000.000, while my misc revenues stand at a lowly €570.344. I pay almost as much misc expenses as I do for gate fees! :( (around 8M€)