Like Ricardo said.  Keep your eye on the sales.  I'd avoid buying from the marketplace if possible though.  For numerous reasons.  

I've bought BMW airports package back then, because his concept is was great and a three other airports. However, I then started flying to msfs default airports and it works ok as long as the airport is not too big and you might get in trouble while taxiing on VATSIM.

The prices that were introduced to MSFS, were better compared to P3D but still pricey. Just think about it, when you want to simulate a real airliner, (depending on which one) you would easely need 80-200 airports. At a cost point of 15 USD that would result in 1200-3000 USD.

I just leave it and stick to default and freeware options. If there is an airport that is good quality for a reasonable price, I might still buy it, when I use the airport regulary. However, it's not my goal anymore to have every single airport as payware quality that I am flying to.

If you could get an airport between 1 and 5 USD you could "easly" afford 200 airports. And airports between 1 -5 USD would sell without any doubt much better. Even then I am sure some people would get them on piracy sites. Pretty sure that's one of the issues here, MSFS has much more potential customers, but many of them probably just download the addons on piracy sites and that has an effect on the sales ofcourse.

I think a long-term solution for that might be that addon developers come with concepts that are based on subcriptions. However, I am not an expert on economics, so I don't know how that would work out. What I know is, at least I would be willing to pay a montly fee (depending on the price) to have access to all ORBX Scenery e.g.

Well I have pleasantly been satisfied with the following airports that I have purchased: CYYZ/Toronto, KBOS/Boston, KFLL/Ft Lauderdale, KCLT/Charlotte, KDCA/Ronald Reagan, KiAD/DC, KORD/Chicago, KLAS/Las Vegas, KSAN/San Diego, KDPX/Portland, CYVR/Vancouver.

I bought most of my airports when on sale. Going from my past experience most of my airports came from FS DreamTeam, Flightbeam, FlyTampa, and Latin VFR.

Combined with the default airports, KJFK, KATL and KDFW I feel pretty well covered in the US. for now. Plus, couple days ago purchased Samscenesightseeing,NewYorkCity $15.00 at simmarket while Orbx was selling it for $24.00. 

Edited July 10, 20223 yr by Sunshine13

Its a good practice to shop around to find the best deals. Sometimes depending on the airport you can save around 5 quid or more by just looking elsewhere. I personally have more payware airports in MSFS than I ever did in P3D. I think the main reason behind that is the price. On Average an addon is much cheaper for MSFS than it is for P3D, sales aren't hard to come by either, with Orbx running several throughout the year - it sure is easy to get that airport you've had your eye on for some time at a significant discount, if only you can hold out for the sales.

Freeware content is the best I have ever seen it for a Microsoft flight simulator. I think MSFS's freeware is giving X-Plane's freeware a run for its "money".

The only addon airports I've bought so far are those of @pyreegue but I've got a shortlist of about 80 payware airports I want to invest in which equals to about 1500-2000 EUR in total investment volume.

So far, I'm having fun with quite a few "freeware" airports from flightsim.to ("Freeware" because I donate to devs who are releasing airports for free that other devs would sell as "lite" payware).

The only thing that STILL keeps me from investing is the faulty and wrong snow coverage of MSFS which will make most of those airports unusable for half a year:

https://forums.flightsimulator.com/t/get-rid-of-the-snow-on-runways-taxiways-aprons-and-roads/339131/78

 

16 minutes ago, shamrockflyer said:

Its a good practice to shop around to find the best deals. Sometimes depending on the airport you can save around 5 quid or more by just looking elsewhere. I personally have more payware airports in MSFS than I ever did in P3D. I think the main reason behind that is the price. On Average an addon is much cheaper for MSFS than it is for P3D, sales aren't hard to come by either, with Orbx running several throughout the year - it sure is easy to get that airport you've had your eye on for some time at a significant discount, if only you can hold out for the sales.

Freeware content is the best I have ever seen it for a Microsoft flight simulator. I think MSFS's freeware is giving X-Plane's freeware a run for its "money".

I've saved all of my watchlist airports in one folder in Firefox (most airports are available at more than just one shop).

When I would want to buy them, I just hit "open all bookmarks" of that folder once a week or so and I'll buy the airports which are on discount.

You can do this every week cause discounts are changing and there are promos going on every now and then for some selected airports or shops.

Edited July 10, 20223 yr by Konterhalbe

58 minutes ago, Sunshine13 said:

Well I have pleasantly been satisfied with the following airports that I have purchased: CYYZ/Toronto, KBOS/Boston, KFLL/Ft Lauderdale, KCLT/Charlotte, KDCA/Ronald Reagan, KiAD/DC, KORD/Chicago, KLAS/Las Vegas, KSAN/San Diego, KDPX/Portland, CYVR/Vancouver.

I bought most of my airports when on sale. Going from my past experience most of my airports came from FS DreamTeam, Flightbeam, FlyTampa, and Latin VFR.

Combined with the default airports, KJFK, KATL and KDFW I feel pretty well covered in the US. for now. Plus, couple days ago purchased Samscenesightseeing,NewYorkCity $15.00 at simmarket while Orbx was selling it for $24.00. 

I actually have almost all of these airports as well. The Orbx sales are great, and I don’t think I’ve bought any that weren’t on sale to this point. I’ve also only bought one from the Marketplace, but it was FT EKCH which I’ve yet to see on sale anywhere else since then. Since it was only $12 I went for it.

Cheers, Pete

4 hours ago, Danno said:

a sub-$10 price tag would open my wallet faster than a $20 ‘full main terminal and hanger walk-through’ would.

Completely agree. I know some people enjoy having the inside of airports modeled and more power to them, but it's not for me at all and to be honest, I don't really understand it, but to each their own. 

I'm actually thinking of removing the few airports I actually did buy.

For one, most of them were/are impulse purchases that I thereafter didn't really visit that much anyway, and it occurs to me that with that being the case, default is just as good for most practical purposes, especially when its not as in days of yore' when default was actively ugly.....

Also, too many addon airports from no-name developers are turning out to be hasty cash-grabs, and Microsoft apparently could not care less. The store is now a dodgy place, where quality is far from a given, and I've become more and more reluctant to purchase anything from there.

Further, you just can't tell nowadays when third party stuff will turn out to be the cause of CTD's in combination with an update or other third party purchases.

And why do so many third party airports have dodgy hold-shorts and etc? And need 3 or four updates to get fixed? Feels..... lazy.

Bleah!

Finally, when the quality of default is as high as it is, how much more stuff does anyone really need to buy, anyway?

 

For 10 days after every world update msfs marketplace scenery at 40% off is plentiful. Ditto on Orbx. I have lots of scenery. Did not pay list price except rarely.

I generally buy on special.

I never buy an airport unless it has some particular funky features I like the look of such as detailed interiors, interesting static aircraft, or is some cases, cows or balloons or hang gliders.  

8 minutes ago, Glenn Fitzpatrick said:

 

 or is some cases, cows or balloons or hang gliders.  

I think, for some payware airports, these could be implemented at some point. Other animals as well. And things like kites, flags and bunting and some foods/beverages.

Virtual bbq events at airports could happen sometime soon. I know this may sound like the ramblings of a total spud, but i really think this will be not unusual on at least one social media site, within a year. 

9 hours ago, FishBowlMan said:

but unless there's a specific airport that you'll be flying to / from regularly, a lot of default ones are more than passable.

Totally right. The default airports now all seem to have jetways, moving traffic, grass and ground handler people walking around. This was unheard of in FSX unless you bought high end payware (especially the people!). Sure there's much more detail you can put in but as a default it's so much more acceptable.

I never bought a payware airport, although I downloaded the freeware Gatwick and Duxford and some in the Netherlands. I have those because I  wanted to see what the community is capable of these days.

For me a flight ends when I'm at the ramp (or gate) and I'm not interested if there is food on the table in the restaurants.

Thats beyond the scope of the way a flight sim appeals to me. (but thats a personal opinion)

 

 

7 hours ago, andy1252 said:

Plus, I've probably got about the same number of freeware addons. Don't ignore that part of the spectrum. There's plenty of stuff out there that way outshines most payware - and don't forget, if you do find something like that, make a donation if possible!

4 hours ago, Konterhalbe said:

So far, I'm having fun with quite a few "freeware" airports from flightsim.to ("Freeware" because I donate to devs who are releasing airports for free that other devs would sell as "lite" payware).

 Hard Agree. If it's not Flightbeam, FlyTampa or Pryeegue level quality, I'll see what freeware alternatives there are.
EGKK, EGSS and EFHK are brilliant freeware examples.

 

4 hours ago, Bdub22 said:

I know some people enjoy having the inside of airports modeled and more power to them, but it's not for me at all and to be honest, I don't really understand it

1 hour ago, HiFlyer said:

default is just as good for most practical purposes, especially when its not as in days of yore' when default was actively ugly....

Not for me. The default (non-handcrafted) buildings are all far too generic - could be at Hanoi or Hamburg.
If an airport terminal is glass-fronted, I want to see at least some of the detail inside (as do many, many others, going by comments), e.g. T2 at EDDK, T5 at EGLL, Term B & C at KDCA and EICK airside are good examples. Makes a scenery feel much more realistic than the default airports, especially if some animated people are included.