Travel industry consultant: Several airlines

Answer choices

1. A

   Weak Impact2% picked this

   Business travelers often make travel decisions based on whether they feel a given airline

   This certainly provides a common sense reason why a business should try make all customers feel like their patronage is valued. But this doesn't offer us a reason why we should prioritize pleasing business travelers over leisure travelers, who buy 80% of the tickets.

   2%
2. B

   No Impact2% picked this

   Some airlines have indicated that they will undertake alterations in seating space throughout the entire passenger area of their

   This is a super weak answer. The word "some" means at least one, and so we very rarely see correct answers to Strengthen, Weaken, or Paradox with the word "some / sometimes / not all". One data point does not usually have much impact on a conversation. Also, to the extent that it has any impact, it seems to fit with the author's advice and thus would only seem to strengthen.

   2%
3. C

   No Impact5% picked this

   Sleeping in comfort during long flights is not the primary concern

   First of all, this is another weakly worded answer. Saying that "X is not the primary concern of Y" doesn't mean that "Y is unconcerned with X". It only means that X is not the #1 concern. It could still be the #2 concern! Even if we did say that leisure travelers are totally unconcerned about sleeping in comfort, this would have no impact on the author's argument. She is just saying let's direct more efforts towards increasing the comfort of leisure travelers. She didn't say it had to relate to sleeping in comfort. It could relate to reading in comfort / watching movies / being able to get to the bathroom, etc.

   5%
4. D

   Correct88% picked this

   A far greater proportion of an airline's revenues is derived from business travelers than

   Why this is right

   This gives us a way to argue that "even though business travelers only account for 20% of tickets, you should still focus on pleasing them", because if we make more money off those tickets, then that could still be a huge business priority. If a Coach ticket is $200 while a business class ticket is $800, then four coach customers are as valuable to us as is one business class ticket (don't even get me started about the groveling we're prepared to do for our First Class customers). This answer is sort of like how sports stadiums and luxury boxes work. Yes, 90% of the ticket holders aren't in luxury boxes, but the 10% who are make us such a higher profit margin that their concerns are our utmost priority.

   Skill tested: Weaken · how this choice captures the argument's function is the move to repeat next time.

   88%
5. E

   Weaker Impact3% picked this

   Most leisure travelers buy airline tickets only when fares

   This has something resembling the effect of (D), but it's not as strong. If most leisure travelers buy discount tickets, then the profit margin on their tickets is probably lower than on business class, so it sets up a similar feeling of, "Oh. So even though the majority of tickets go to leisure travelers, the real money-making tickets are business class tickets!" But if we ask ourselves, "Which answer, (D) or (E), does a better job of convincing me that airlines make more money off business class tickets", (D) wins because it explicitly says that. (E) suggests it might be true (assuming that business travelers usually buy full-price tickets, which we were not told).

   3%