How did airlines ticketing work before the internet era?

Question

I am gonna refer to the movie Argo here which was based in Iranian revolution in 1979. In the final moments of the movie during the tickets are bought only during the last moment (I understand the last moment ticket purchase was dramatized for the movie). But was it possible to book a ticket for flight from Iran from United States so quick without the internet?

In: 28

Answer 1

I studied computer science in 1979 and the airline ticket sales algorithm was taught then. It showed how a software ticket locking mechanism write ensure 2 sales points would not sell the same ticket at the same time.