# Help Broomstick Book an Airline Flight

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-broomstick-book-an-airline-flight/520143>\
**Category:** Factual Questions\
**Created:** [December 6, 2009, 12:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-broomstick-book-an-airline-flight/520143 "2009-12-06T00:09:08Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 2\
**Page:** 2

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**Author:** ![Princhester](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/3e96dc/32.png) [@Princhester](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Princhester)\
**Post date:** [December 8, 2009, 7:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-broomstick-book-an-airline-flight/520143/21 "2009-12-08T07:44:30Z")

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> [@Terry\_Kennedy](#):
>
> I miss the good old days, too - nearly 30 years ago I used to do computer consulting for a non-US carrier, and I had a stack of tickets (back when they were the red carbon-paper ones) that were OPEN\*3 (any departure airport / any arrival airport / any date/time) and which were honored on all of the “real” US carriers (not on carriers like People Express).

… all of which are now in serious financial difficulty. Just saying. Not trying to draw any conclusions. Not me. Nope.

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**Author:** ![ElvisL1ves](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/5daacb/32.png) [@ElvisL1ves](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ElvisL1ves)\
**Post date:** [December 8, 2009, 2:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-broomstick-book-an-airline-flight/520143/22 "2009-12-08T14:38:50Z")

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The US airlines were deregulated in 1978. Profit margins immediately went to zero, have hovered around there since, and are structurally incapable of recovering much.

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