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« on: May 21, 2012, 10:11:30 pm »
Here's the sitch, what do you think about it?
My airline is relatively new in a relatively new public world. It has a fleet of about 20 small prop planes of max 56 pax. Growth is good and the fleet will be replaced as growth continues... normal business cycle.
I joined an alliance, and in doing so became the only airline in that alliance to offer a non-U.S.-based hub. One of the other alliance members is a behemoth with more than 150 aircraft, all jets, all very large of course (how this is possible in such a short time after opening of the game is always a mystery to me but so be it...). Shortly after I joined the alliance, this behemoth loaded up my hub with his mega jets and proceeded to promptly undercut all of my fares on nearly every one of my routes, wreaking havoc on well, more than 80% of them and dealing me a really bad setback which forced me to bail out of the alliance pronto.
In past games, all players in every alliance I have been in have always followed the same sense of etiquette - you do not undercut anyone in your own alliance. If you do, it is an exception and you at least have the courtesy to notify that player. Obviously, this has meant that deploying a large jet on a route I am running with a Dash-6 is not a wise thing to do, as - without undercutting me by more than 50% farewise - the jet would be very empty at the rates I have to charge.
My big competitor in same alliance was not troubled by any sense of decorum or etiquette and responded to my calling him on his unfriendly behavior that "that's called competition" and basically "tough luck."
Who agrees and who disagrees? Should joining an alliance just give everyone the right to rape a competitor blind with no consequences? Startlingly, those airlines joining real alliances in the real world are allowed to compete on price, but withing very strict, carefully defined ranges and parameters as the sense of an alliance is commonly deemed communal cooperation - us vs. them, the them being those outside the alliance, not those in it...
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