UCAT Question Analysis - Verbal Reasoning Question 12
TEXT
Euro MPs have recently adopted a new law compensating bus, coach and boat passengers for delays and cancellations.
Maritime transport companies will have the obligation to "provide infor-mation to their passengers as well as compensation if their journey is dis-rupted or interrupted", the Parliament explains. Compensation will vary be-tween 25% of the price of the ticket for delays between one and two hours and 50% if the delay exceeds two hours. Compensation is 100% of the ticket price if the company does not provide suitable alternative means of transport or information on alternative means of transport.
For buses and coaches, companies will also need to provide a substitute or information about substitute modes of transport. If required, they will also need to pay half the ticket price.
New EU legislation had already been adopted in 2005 for plane delays, with passengers denied boarding because of overbooking, or delays caused by other airline hiccups, receiving compensation of 250 Euros for short-haul flights, rising to 600 Euros for long-haul flights. If a flight is cancelled, air-fines have to give passengers meals, refreshments and overnight accom-modation (including a transfer to the hotel) free of charge or find them al-ternative transport to their final destination. Passengers are also entitled to complimentary refreshments on board the aircraft if they are delayed be-yond a specified number of hours, which depends on the distance they are due to fly. Those who are most affected are the budget airlines, as the corn-pensation sums represent a huge proportion of their average fares.
Q12.1 A delay of one hour on the bus will give rise to compensation of 25% of the price of the ticket.
❑ True
❑ False
❑ Can't tell
Q12.2 Compensation in the airline industry is not related to the cost of the ticket.
❑ True
❑ False
❑ Can't tell
Q12.3 Compensation for airline delays cannot exceed 600 Euros.
❑ True
❑ False
❑ Can't tell
Q12.4 The introduction of the new compensation rules will lead to an in-crease In ticket prices.
❑ True
❑ False
❑ Can't tell
Q12.5 It is possible for airline delay compensation to be higher than the price paid for the ticket.
❑ True
❑ False
❑ Can't tell
Q12.6 ft is possible for ferry delay compensation to be higher than the price paid for the ticket.
❑ True
❑ False
❑ Can't tell
Q12.7 Boat companies are legally obliged to organise an alternative mode of transport for their passengers.
❑ True
❑ False
❑ Can't tell
Q12.8 All airline passengers who are entitled to the 600-Euro compensa-tion package for long-haul flights are also entitled to complimentary refreshments on board the aircraft.
❑ True
❑ False
❑ Can't tell
Answer and Explanation
Q12.1 — CAN'T TELL.
The text is actually ambiguous on this matter. Intui-tively one would think that buses and coaches would follow the same rules as boats, but the text only mentions the need to pay half of the ticket price "if required" without mentioning anything about how such requirement is assessed or whether the 25% also applies for smaller delays.
Q12.2 — TRUE.
The amounts are fixed and therefore are not linked to ticket prices.
Q12.3 — FALSE.
As well as the potential maximum of 600 Euros, the text also mentions having to provide complimentary refreshments on board the aircraft if the delay is beyond a specified number of hours. This will add to the costs.
Q12.4 — CAN'T TELL.
Although this is a possibility, there is nothing in the text that remotely addresses this issue.
Q12.5 — TRUE.
Since the compensation amount is fixed at an arbitrary level, it is of course possible that an airline with cheap tickets could pay more in compensation than the price paid for the ticket. This is a fact that is emphasised in the last sentence of the text.
Q12.6 — FALSE.
There is no mention in the text of any reason why com-pensation should go over 100%. In fact, we know that It would normally be 50% and would only increase to 100% if no information was provided.
Q12.7 — FALSE.
Companies only have an obligation to provide information. We can get this from two places: the first sentence of the second paragraph states this explicitly; also, the compensation of 100% is only payable if com-panies fail to provide alternative means of transport or Information on alter-native modes of transport. There is therefore no need for them to actually organise it.
Q12.8 — CAN'T TELL.
The 600 Euros are payable for delays but we don't know how many hours of delay are needed. We also know that there are complimentary refreshments on board the aircraft for those who have been delayed beyond a specified number of hours, though the text says nothing about what those hours are. Therefore we have no means of assessing whether there is an exact match between the two numbers of hours re-quired to trigger each part of the compensation package.
Drafted by Juno Wong(UCAT Prep)