> ## Documentation Index
> Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://docs.flyhub.app/llms.txt
> Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further.

# From Dispatch to Settlement

> Follow a Virtual Airlines flight from quote and booking through validation, recovery, scoring, and finance.

# From Dispatch to Settlement

A Virtual Airlines flight has a lifecycle. The number you see in Dispatch is a forecast for a specific opportunity; the number in Finance is the recorded result after the flight has been validated. Knowing the stages helps you understand why a booked flight can still change, fail, or settle differently from its first preview.

## The lifecycle at a glance

| Stage | What happens | What you should check |
| - | - | - |
| Quote | FlyHub calculates a current route, market, aircraft, price, and payload opportunity. | Is the route, aircraft, time, and quoted payload right for you? |
| Hold | The selected opportunity is held for a short period, normally two hours. | Book before the hold expires and refresh if the market changes. |
| Booking | Route, aircraft, airline policy, activity rules, and requested payload are recorded. | Read the final booking summary; it is authoritative. |
| Preparation | You plan the flight and choose tracking or debrief. | Use the booked aircraft, route, operating day, and allowed simulation rate. |
| Flight | The operation is flown, tracked, recovered, or interrupted. | Keep the flight state accurate and preserve the evidence the page asks for. |
| Completion | FlyHub receives the end state and checks the operation. | Finish only after route, payload, timing, and result details are ready. |
| Validation | The result is checked for eligibility, quality, payload, timing, and policy compliance. | A result can be accepted, penalized, restored, or rejected. |
| Settlement | An accepted result is credited and debited once in the airline ledger. | Review the breakdown in My Flights or Finance. |

## 1. Quote and market hold

When you open [Dispatch](./dispatch), FlyHub combines:

* the airline and your membership;
* the route or activity source;
* the current weekly and hourly market;
* aircraft location, type, condition, seats, and weight;
* airline ticket and cargo price policy;
* airline reputation and service frequency;
* departure timing and operating-day rules;
* passenger, cargo, VIP, tour, charter, or event restrictions.

The result is a quote: a snapshot of what the operation can support now. It can include passenger count, cargo weight, fuel, zero-fuel weight, takeoff weight, and expected financial information.

The market hold is temporary. If another operation commits demand, the aircraft changes state, the weekly market rolls over, or the hold expires, a refreshed quote can differ.

## 2. Booking freezes the important choices

Booking confirms the route, airline, aircraft, operating policy, activity rules, and pilot-requested payload. An event or tour may lock even more of those fields. If the route came from a tour or charter, do not assume it can be replaced with an ordinary schedule after booking.

The requested payload is the pilot's selected passenger or cargo amount within the quote ceiling. It is not yet the same as the recognized payload after a flight. FlyHub validates what the completed operation actually carried.

Booking limits are deliberately stricter than some quote or scheduler previews. A normal booking currently supports up to four legs, while a scheduler can create a larger pattern within the limits shown on that page. The confirmation action and final booking result are the authority.

## 3. Prepare and start

In [My Flights](./my-flights), review the operation before starting:

* airline and operating airline;
* route and aircraft;
* scheduled operating day and UTC time;
* passengers, cargo, and weights;
* zero-fuel and takeoff weight;
* the flight plan or debrief method;
* tracking, recovery, and time-acceleration choices.

Online Tracking connects the operation to supported telemetry. Offline Debrief lets you enter a result after the flight when that operation permits it. The available actions depend on the current state and activity rules.

## 4. Fly with the booked facts in mind

The flight is evaluated against the booking. Keep the route and aircraft consistent, respect the operating window, and do not exceed the physical payload or weight envelope.

Time acceleration is a policy choice, not a way to remove cost. When it is allowed, costs remain and positive earnings and XP are reduced. When it is prohibited, a result can be treated as invalid, with no normal settlement or XP and the aircraft left in its original position.

Operating days and several time windows use UTC. A local midnight crossing can therefore belong to a different operating day than the one on your computer.

## 5. Completion and recognized payload

At completion, FlyHub checks more than whether the aircraft reached the destination. It evaluates the route, aircraft, timing, payload, operating score, and policy compliance.

The difference between the requested and recognized payload matters:

| Payload term | Meaning |
| - | - |
| Market availability | What the shared market could offer at quote time. |
| Quote ceiling | The maximum passenger or cargo amount the selected operation could request. |
| Requested payload | What you selected when booking. |
| Physical payload | What the aircraft could safely carry under its weight and configuration limits. |
| Recognized payload | What the completed and validated flight is allowed to earn from. |

Revenue uses recognized passengers and cargo. If a flight completes with less recognized payload than requested, revenue falls with it. Unused seats and unused cargo capacity are not paid.

Cabin demand can also change the mix of recognized passengers. Premium, business, and first-class passengers have higher revenue weights when occupied, but those seats are more sensitive to reputation, condition, comfort, and demand. A premium seat that is not occupied earns nothing.

## 6. Scoring and operational result

An accepted flight receives an operational result and a pilot-facing score. A score below 8.2 can create an airline penalty of FH\$350 for each point below the threshold. Poor execution can therefore reduce the flight result even when the aircraft carried a useful payload.

Other results can include:

| Result or state | What it means |
| - | - |
| Normal | The operation completed under normal rules and can settle normally. |
| Late | The operation completed outside the preferred timing and can receive a weaker result or penalties. |
| Diverted | The aircraft did not complete the planned city pair; follow the result and recovery guidance shown by FlyHub. |
| Restored / recoverable | FlyHub has preserved enough state for you to continue or recover the operation. |
| Rejected / invalid | The result failed a policy, telemetry, route, aircraft, timing, or integrity check and does not receive the normal settlement. |
| Closed | The operation is no longer open. It may include a completed, rejected, cancelled, abandoned, or expired result. |
| MAYDAY | An irreversible emergency close. It grants no normal score, XP, progression, or settlement. |

Closed does not always mean successful. Managers should use [Operations](./manage-operations) and the flight result to understand what actually happened.

## 7. Settlement

An accepted result is written once to the airline ledger. It combines:

* passenger, cargo, ancillary, and eligible contract revenue;
* fuel, airport, handling, navigation, service, fleet, maintenance, insurance, and environmental costs;
* crew or pilot reward;
* penalties, passenger compensation, or abnormal maintenance when applicable.

The ledger is append-only. Finance is read-only, so a previous settlement is not silently edited. If a correction is needed, it appears as a separate accounting entry or an updated result according to the product's correction flow.

The airline balance is the source of truth for the money. Pilot progression is shown through the pilot record, score, XP, flights, and hours; do not infer a personal cash payment from the crew-payroll line.

## Recovery and position

Use **Recover** when FlyHub marks an interrupted operation as recoverable. Read the recovery details before restarting it. A recovery can preserve the operation, while a cancellation or MAYDAY can close it with a different result.

Normal, scheduled, and free flights generally move the aircraft to the operation's destination after a valid completion. Some event and charter flows keep the stored position according to their activity rules. The position shown by FlyHub after settlement is authoritative; do not manually assume that every special operation behaves like a scheduled route.

## When the result does not match your expectation

Check in this order:

1. The final booking summary, rather than an early quote.
2. The recognized passenger or cargo amount.
3. The operational score and timing result.
4. The aircraft condition, weight, and policy checks.
5. The settlement breakdown in Finance or the economy record.
6. Whether the market or a recurring charge changed after the first quote.

Do not book a duplicate while My Flights or Finance is still refreshing. Reload the page and use its recovery action first.

## Read next

* [How Virtual Airlines Works](./how-virtual-airlines-works)
* [Virtual Airlines Economy and Ticket Pricing](./economy-and-pricing)
* [Dispatch](./dispatch)
* [My Flights](./my-flights)
* [Calendar](./calendar)
* [Manage Airline: Finance](./manage-finance)
* [Manage Airline: Operations](./manage-operations)


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