The Economic Way of Thinking 13th Edition by David Prychitko, Peter Boettke, Paul Heyne

Exercise 1

Soon after the government deregulated airline pricing, a major airline began asking in-flight passengers to complete a lengthy "Passenger Survey." A cover note from the senior vice president for marketing said that passengers who completed the survey would be helping the airline provide "the best possible service." Questions were asked about the purpose of this trip, frequency of flying, type of fare paid, what would have been done had no discount fare been available, how the ticket was purchased, and income of the traveller. What was the airline trying to do?