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Bunuel
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Bunuel
Most airlines use some form of "tiered pricing," a strategy that involves selling similar seats for different prices depending on factors such as the type of customer and the number of days between the purchase and the fight. Generally, business customers and customers purchasing tickets at the last minute pay more than average price for a seat. Air , however, sells all seats for the same price. Therefore, when traveling routes served by Air Macaria and an airline that uses tiered pricing, business travelers purchasing tickets at the last minute save money by flying Air Macaria.

Which of the following is an assumption on which the argument depends?

(A) Customers who purchase tickets more than three weeks in advance spend less, on average, per ticket, than customers who purchase tickets less than three weeks in advance.

(B) Airlines that use tiered pricing serve many more routes than airlines that do not.

(C) When flying a route that includes both Air Macaria and an airline that uses tiered pricing, a traveler is subject to the different pricing strategies of the airlines for each portion of the trip.

(D) The average price of a ticket on any given route on Air Macaria is equal to the average price on the same route of a ticket offered by an airline that uses tiered pricing.

(E) More business travelers fly on airlines that used tiered pricing than on airlines that do not.

OFFICIAL EXPLANATION



D

The passage makes clear that business travelers and last-minute purchasers pay more than average (so a last-minute business traveler will definitely pay more than average), but as always, an assumption question is based on a shift in what is being described. In this case, we don't know how Air Macaria's average rates compare to those of their competition. In other words, is an average fare on Air Macaria better than the last-minute business fare offered by the competition? If the argument is valid, that must be the case, but it isn't stated.

Choice (A) specifies something in the passage, but doesn't address the comparison between Air Macaria and its competition's prices. (B) is irrelevant, as the argument is specific to routes served by an airline that does use tiered pricing and one that does not. (C) is off-topic: The passage is about one specific route, not a hybrid one that must be assembled from multiple airlines.

Choice (D) addresses the assumption identified above. If the average prices on the airlines are the same, then it is true that the higher-than-average ticket price on the airline that uses tiered pricing is greater than the average price on Air Macaria. (E) is incorrect, as the number of passengers that use any particular airline or pricing system is outside the scope of this argument. Choice (D) is correct.
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