Welcome Aboard!
Thank you for choosing to fly with us. We hope your flight goes according to plan. See what we did there? This site is dedicated to you, the players, so Flight Plan is always fun and challenging,
Please visit the FAQ to keep up on the latest rules or Connect and share your playing experiences, We'd love to know what 'house rules" your crew has created and suggestions you might have to make the game even more fun to play.
7.2 Board Game Geek Rating
About
Flight Plan
Flight Plan is a card-pulling, investment, and market strategy, squeeze-your-eyes-tight-and-hope-for-good-luck game.
Players use strategy to try to dominate the global airline industry by developing a network of routes, acquiring fleets of aircraft, and establishing hubs around the globe. However, before you can operate in more than two regions, you must reach critical economic thresholds. And each turn, a daily briefing card inserts an element of chance, so even the best-laid strategy can be overcome. The daily briefing can increase your revenue, make you pay penalties, or end your turn. A few can ruin your airline.
The world is separated into six operating regions: North America (NA), South America (SA), Europe (EU), Africa (AF), Asia-Pacific (AP), and the Middle East (ME). You are only able to operate in two regions until specific resource goals are met. The board has 100 Routes that connect 57 cities. 15 Cities have been identified as hubs. You can win in one of three ways:
1. Be the first to provide service to all six regions using a network of connected routes; connections to multiple regions can go through a single city.
2. Establish a hub in any three of the six operating regions.
3. Own all the short-haul routes in two adjoining North/South regions: [North America | South America], [Europe | Africa] or [Asia-Pacific | Middle East].
Top 5 Rules Questions
Here are some the more frequently asked questions regarding the rules of the game, interpretations of daily briefings, and some "house rule" ideas you might try.
01
How do cargo planes and routes work?
Q: If you have a Cargo route on a (long haul route) do you only need a cargo plane or must you also have a long haul plane? And if you need one or both how does that pay out?
A: You do not need to own a long-haul fleet to fly a LH cargo route. Owning the cargo fleet makes the route active. You won't get the route revenue for the LH designation, but you will get the $20M cargo revenue. This is true on any cargo route where you don't own the fleet type for the route.
02
How do Route Use Fees and Hub Use Fees work?
Route Use fees are paid to the owner of a route when another player uses that route during their turn. They would pay the route use fee printed on the route cards. For example, if Player A uses Player B's route during Player A's turn, then Player A will owe the route use fee printed on the route owned by Player B.
Hub Use fees are paid to the owner of the hub when another player flies a route that connects to the hub. For example, if Player A flies a route into a hub owned by Player B, then Player A will owe Player B the hub use fee printed on the route card of the route just flown. It does not matter if Player A owns the route or not, the hub use fee on the route card is what is paid to the hub owner. The hub use fee will be paid by Player A to Player B during Player A's turn.
03
What determines the two region operating liimit at the begining of the game?
Q: At the beginning of the game, the three route cards dealt would have put my routes in four different regions. I know I can only operate in two regions, what decides these two regions?
A: By rule, you can only buy routes that operate in two regions from the three cards you were dealt at the beginning of the game. The cards you initially buy can only operate between two regions or within two regions. For example, you could own a route that operates within the Asia-Pacific region and one that operates between Asia-Pacific and Europe. You would not be able to operate in a third region until the conditions are met; you either own $500M in fleet or be making $120M in revenue per turn, and all assets you own are active.
04
What do you pay when Daily Briefing penalties are higher than the revenue of your turn?
Q: If a player makes less Revenue in a turn than the negative Daily Briefing Card, are they capped to the Revenue received that turn or do they need to eat into their cash holdings?
A: You pay whatever is posted on the daily briefing regardless of the revenue you earned during the turn. If the daily briefing says you pay $40M due to a mechanic shortage and only made $20M in revenue that turn, you still owe the additional $20M from your reserves. If you cannot afford to pay, then you would be forced to deactivate an asset and pay the balance due. Any daily briefing cards that specifically refer to revenue, such as lose all revenue or lose all Long Haul revenue, would only apply to the revenue earned during your current turn.
05
Are Hub Use Fees paid on Deactivated Routes?
Q: If player A owns a hub in a city, and player B owns a route connecting to player A’s hub, what happens when player B deactivates that route connecting to player A’s hub? Does Player B still pay hub fees even if the route is deactivated? Or is Player A unable to collect hub fees since the route is deactivated for three turns?
A: If a route is deactivated, no fees can be collected against it. Any player can fly the route without paying the route use fee and the hub use fee is also not applicable if/when the route connects to an active hub. After three turns, once the route is reactivated, then all fees can be collected again.
House Rule Ideas
House Rule idea: Stealing a hub!
A group of players decided to create a house rule related to stealing a hub from a player. The rule as described enables a player to "steal" another player's hub for $350M if/when the hub owner's plane is not located at the hub, and the player stealing the hub flies into the hub meaning their plane is located at the hub at the time they are "stealing" it.
House Rule idea: Fly friendlier skies with more positive daily briefings.
There are 100 daily briefing cards (108 in the Kickstarter edition) 60% of them will negatively impact your play. If you want to stack the deck in your favor, remove negative cards to even the odds or create a mostly favorable deck. You can play a complete game with a 50 card daily briefing deck.
House Rule idea: Pick 2 daily briefings.
When a player has acquired 3 or more active fleets, they can draw 2 daily briefing cards during their turn and act on the most favorable one. If the player's fleets are stolen or deactivated and they own less than three, they will revert back to drawing only a single daily briefing card.
2-player House Rule idea: Four hubs to win!
The three-hub scenario is a much easier way to win when playing with two players. Consider making a house rule when playing with two players, that four hubs in four different regions is required to win.
Contact & Share
Share your gameplay! Please send us photos and stories about your adventures with Flight Plan. Use the email below or contact form. (*)
inaminutemom
(*) We may want to use your photos or accounts in future Instagram or website posts. We will contact you and ask permission prior to publishing any submitted materials.