I'm currently very undecided about which version to purchase. I'd like to make the right choice up front as their pricing strategy stings you for upgrading later.

How do people feel about the additional planes and airports? It seems that the jets are not so good? Are there some GA planes in there that are good? Even if the planes aren't that great, ten additional large airports at ~ $6 per airport seems like a pretty good deal, assuming they are decent quality.

Thanks for any comments you can provide.

I went for the premium deluxe version and I don't regret it. The airliners aren't perfect, but they are all flyable with a bit of practice and far better than default aircraft we've seen in previous generations of the sim. Some of the hand-crafted airports have little niggles as well but they are few and far between. The airports aren't full payware quality but they look nice. The biggest irritation for me is that there are no visible gate numbers, either on the ground or on the jetways etc... and if that's my biggest problem with them, I think Asobo must have done an alirght job. For the price, it was definitely worth it for me. I suppose it depends on your finances and how much pleasure you think you'll get out of the additional content though.

I bought the Premium Deluxe and would not do it again. My motivation for it was EDDF and the 787.

EDDF I find underwhelming to be honest. The building colors are way off, some not really recognisable at all. Been travelling through EDDF weekly the last years. My verdict: Better wait for Aerosoft.

The 787 has been subject to much debate. Again my opinion: in its current state with the long list of bugs not something I enjoy. Better wait for Quality Wings.

Right now (until Asobos pushes out some patches) for me this is a GA sim. Meaning I stay away from big airports and airlines. That makes it in many places really enjoyable.

If you can easily afford the premium edition, go for it. The Cessna Longitude is fun. The Dreamliner is meh. Pretty but not very functional. The Shock Ultra is fun too.

The aircraft in the Deluxe give you two non-glass Cessna aircraft which is a plus in my way of looking at things.

The airports weren't part of my decision, so I won't comment on that aspect.

I got the Standard Version that comes with the Xbox Game Pass, which is only costing me one dollar for the first 30 days, (new sign-up first-month discount.)  

I would like to have the Cessna 172 with the old gauges instead of the G1000.  But for now, the Cessna 152 is old school enough and I am looking forward to playing with the Savage Cub.

In essence, I will get the use of the sim for 60 days for 6 bucks while Asobo tightens it up. After that, I can decide if I want to drop $120 for the full boat, or just continue to pay $5/mo while they continue to work on it.

For me, that’s a no-brainer.  I am enjoying the hell out of it for not much outlay. 

Edited August 23, 20205 yr by mick92627

5 hours ago, Flying Fisherman said:

I'm currently very undecided about which version to purchase. I'd like to make the right choice up front as their pricing strategy stings you for upgrading later.

How do people feel about the additional planes and airports? It seems that the jets are not so good? Are there some GA planes in there that are good? Even if the planes aren't that great, ten additional large airports at ~ $6 per airport seems like a pretty good deal, assuming they are decent quality.

Thanks for any comments you can provide.

I went for Premium Deluxe with the idea that every additional airport and aircraft added up to 3€ each. Considering that, I believe I got my money worth and then some.

Sure, the handcrafted airports by Asobo may not be as picturesque as payware products, but for 3€ each, they are reasonably detailed and they work well out of the box with all of MSFS's airport systems, like ground services, undulating runways, moving vehicles, etc.

As for the airplanes, I was especially interested in the Citation Longitude and the Cirrus SR22. The Longitude is beautifully detailed, the cockpit just looks amazing. Systems-wise, the Garmin avionics seem to be reasonably working and in-depth, as far as I can tell. The one big problem here is the engines. There's problems with excessive power and fuel burn currently. The SR22 is also nicely detailed. Flight dynamics are OK, as far as I can tell. The Garmin implementation here seems to be a stock G1000, slightly customized for the SR22, but with a few missing features, so that's not entirely accurate to the real plane. Also, the mixture setting doesn't seem to work right yet.

Overall, expecting that the airplanes will eventually be fixed, I'm quite happy to have gotten the Premium edition.

Edited August 23, 20205 yr by Der Zeitgeist

Premium Deluxe gave me everything I wanted out the box.  As stated above the Long Haulers (including the Cessna Longitude) need work but for the GA side it's amazing. I too was looking forward to staying away from the airliner side until add-ons like Ultimate Traffic, Payware Airliners, and airports started to get released.  Coorporate was the way to go for me with the Longitude and Citation to those airports only the VIP's fly to.  That got dashed by the issues with the Longitude but just the same all else is amazing and with the options of Premium Deluxe I'm exploring in areas I would have never thought of before.

I got the Premium Deluxe version and I really like that I have the steam gauge 172, which seems to fly nicely to me. I am not a study-level simmer and for me, I like the 787 and know that Asobo will continue to improve it to fix many of the current issues, therefore, I am not too worried. 

I also very much like that other planes that are offered and really like the additional airports, so to me it is a good value.

One thing that is important is I imagine that future Premium Deluxe content will be made by Asobo and I do not want to miss out. I would think that they will add new Premium Deluxe airports and am sure they will include new Premium Deluxe aircraft, especially when they offer helicopters. 

With this being said, I would rather pay $120 now and have access to everything than $60 now and then pay $85 for the upgrade. Remember, I think it is a good guess to think that more Premium Deluxe content will be available in the next few months and years. 

This simulator is very much still in beta stage. I wont be paying full price until the flight breaking bugs get fixed.

I am currently on a subscription and maybe try it till the end of year to make a decicion weather to buy it or not.

Currently have 20 hours flying time.

I'd be curious to see side by side comparison screenshots of the default vs Premium airports.

I went with the Premium Deluxe to get the Longitude and the Shock Ultra, the 787 was gravy.  No regrets.

34 minutes ago, VeryBumpy said:

I'd be curious to see side by side comparison screenshots of the default vs Premium airports.

That is very difficult to do.  You either have one or the other, but not both for comparison.  Go to FlightBeam's site and you can see a great comparison of the $15 upgrade vs the Asobo upgrade for Denver KDEN.

I thought it was worth the extra cash for the super sexy version. You get a Cirrus, F152A and a Zlin Shock Ultra, all of which are fun and interesting aeroplanes.

Pipistrel Virus is a novel thing and the 787 whilst not fashy in terms of features, does the job of providing an airliner of its size and range until decent payware alternatives show up.

One more item to consider: upgrading later to Premium Deluxe seems much more expensive if I read the market correctly 

7 hours ago, VeryBumpy said:

I'd be curious to see side by side comparison screenshots of the default vs Premium airports.

^^^^This

I bought the premium deluxe for a few airports and a few aircraft. Its clear to me what i got with the aircraft, but the airports... was it worth it to upgrade? I don't really know what I got over the default, and I dont think there's a way to unload the upgrade version to compare (something said was quite trivial in FSX or P3D).