Question

DIRECTIONS for questions 78 to 81: Read the data below and choose the correct option for the questions that follow.

Queen Airlines offers the following Privilege programme: there are 5 membership tiers, each with its own set of enhanced tier-specific benefits. New members join at the Blue tier, then upgrade to Blue Plus, which adds the benefit of Tele check-in. The programme also has three elite tiers, Silver, Gold and Platinum. The 6-month fast-track upgrade and the 12-month standard upgrade system work in parallel: whenever a passenger meets the condition for the next tier, either in terms of the number of flights taken in the stipulated period or in terms of accumulated Queen-Miles, in either of the two systems, the passenger is automatically upgraded to the next tier. The 6-month system looks at a rolling 6-month period, and the 12-month system looks at a rolling 12-month period. If conditions for more than one upgrade are met at the same time, the passenger is given the higher of the two tiers.

Tier Upgrade	6-month Fast Track Upgrade System (Cumulative flights / Cumulative Queen-Miles)	12-month Standard Upgrade System (Cumulative flights / Cumulative Queen-Miles)
Blue to Blue Plus	3 / 3,000	Not Applicable
Blue Plus to Silver	Not Applicable	5 / 12,500
Silver to Gold	5 / 12,500	10 / 20,000
Gold to Platinum	10 / 20,000	20 / 30,000

Benefits and Privileges

	Blue	Blue Plus	Silver	Gold	Platinum
Tele Check-in		✓	✓	✓	✓
Additional baggage allowance			10 kgs	20 kgs	35 kgs
Confirmed upgrade vouchers			1	3	5
Guaranteed reservations upto 24 hours prior to departure				✓	✓
Cancellation fees waived on published fares					✓

Distances between cities in Queen-miles

	Delhi	Kolkata	Mumbai	Hyderabad	Bangalore	Coimbatore	Guwahati
Kolkata	1461
Mumbai	1407	1987
Hyderabad	1499	1516	711
Bangalore	2061	1881	998	562
Coimbatore	2401	2167	1265	902	340
Guwahati	1959	1081	2746	2370	2932	3209
Chennai	2095	1676	1329	688	331	491	2718

Mr Kakkar, a newly recruited MBA from a business school, started his career at the start of 2007. His travel plan for 2007 is given below.

Date	From	To
2.1.2007	Mumbai	Hyderabad
8.1.2007	Hyderabad	Mumbai
3.2.2007	Mumbai	Delhi
8.3.2007	Delhi	Guwahati
20.3.2007	Guwahati	Kolkata
11.4.2007	Kolkata	Guwahati
30.4.2007	Guwahati	Chennai
4.7.2007	Chennai	Guwahati
20.7.2007	Guwahati	Kolkata
2.9.2007	Kolkata	Hyderabad
11.9.2007	Hyderabad	Guwahati
22.9.2007	Guwahati	Delhi
1.10.2007	Chennai	Bangalore
11.10.2007	Guwahati	Chennai
4.11.2007	Chennai	Delhi
29.11.2007	Delhi	Hyderabad
1.12.2007	Hyderabad	Guwahati
31.12.2007	Guwahati	Mumbai

In which month will Mr Kakkar become eligible for guaranteed reservations up to 24 hours prior to departure?

• A. January
• B. February
• C. March
• D. April

Hint:

Guaranteed reservations 24 hours before departure need Gold tier or above (check the tick marks in the Benefits table). Track Kakkar's cumulative flights against the tier table to see when he first reaches Gold.

Answer 1

The Correct Option is C

Step 1: Understand the eligibility rule.
Look at the Benefits and Privileges table. The row "Guaranteed reservations upto 24 hours prior to departure" carries a tick mark only under the Gold and Platinum columns. So Kakkar becomes eligible for this benefit the moment he first reaches the Gold tier, not before.

Step 2: Track Kakkar's early flights.
Use the Queen-miles distance table to find each flight's distance, and keep a running count of flights and running total of miles:
2.1: Mumbai-Hyderabad = 711 (flight 1, running total 711)
8.1: Hyderabad-Mumbai = 711 (flight 2, running total 1422)
3.2: Mumbai-Delhi = 1407 (flight 3, running total 2829)

Step 3: Apply the Blue to Blue Plus threshold.
Blue to Blue Plus needs 3 flights or 3,000 Queen-Miles, and only the 6-month fast track applies here (the 12-month system is Not Applicable for this step). By his 3rd flight, on 3 February, Kakkar has exactly 3 flights, so he moves up to Blue Plus on 3 February 2007.

Step 4: Apply the Blue Plus to Silver threshold, and check for a further jump.
Blue Plus to Silver needs 5 flights or 12,500 miles on the 12-month system. Continuing the log:
8.3: Delhi-Guwahati = 1959 (flight 4, running total 4788)
20.3: Guwahati-Kolkata = 1081 (flight 5, running total 5869)
By his 5th flight, on 20 March, Kakkar has exactly 5 flights, so he becomes Silver on 20 March 2007. At the very same point, Silver to Gold on the 6-month fast track also needs only 5 flights, which he already has. Since two upgrade conditions are satisfied together, the rule gives him the higher tier, so he jumps straight past Silver to Gold, also on 20 March 2007.

Final Answer:
Kakkar reaches the Gold tier on 20 March 2007, so March is the month he first becomes eligible for guaranteed reservations up to 24 hours before departure.
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