There are few important factors that you should bear in mind and check before choosing a premium plane in World of Warplanes:
- The higher the tier of the plane, the higher the potential reward
- The higher the tier of the plane, the higher the costs of maintenance
- The more damage you can inflict (and get more kills), the more credits you will earn
- Opinions of other players
- Personal taste and flying style
The first two points are quite straightforward. Further into the game, the risk & reward system has more influence on your earnings. While having a tier 8 premium plane, (currently not available in game) can give you significant boost to your credits pool, the cost of its maintenance (repairs, ammo and consumables refill) can make it a quite a risky operation. If you are sure about your skills though, purchasing premium plane of the highest tier possible should be your first choice.
Another thing to bear in mind is the performance of the plane. In order to earn a lot of credits, you need to deal as much damage to enemy planes / ground targets as possible. The crucial factor here is the armament, but the other features (like airspeed and maneuverability) should be taken into consideration as well, as those will help you in close combat situations.
Not every premium plane is designed to earn a lot of credits! Some of the planes are made to be scouts and/or baits and as such those machines don’t have much firepower. The perfect example of this is the Messerschmitt Me 209 V, which damage output is really small compared to other tier V fighters, but it compensates with its air speed:
Before making a decision about your premium plane purchase, you should also try to search for the opinions of other players on specific planes. The best way to do that would be to browse our official WoWp forums, specifically the aircraft discussion section, which you can find here.
The last factor, but not the least important one, is your personal taste and preferred flying style. Depending on those, some planes may suit you better than others. If you would like to test a plane before a purchase, you can always do it by participating in public tests of new updates of World of Warplanes, which take place on a dedicated test server. Those tests give you the chance to test all kinds of planes for free and it is a great method to avoid less fortunate purchases.