Commitments and Contingencies - Additional Information (Detail) (USD $)	3 Months Ended
	Mar. 31, 2014	Mar. 31, 2014 Revolving Credit Facility	Mar. 27, 2013 Revolving Credit Facility	Mar. 31, 2014 Tax-exempt special facilities revenue bonds	Mar. 31, 2014 Floating Rate Debt	Mar. 31, 2014 Fixed Rate Debt	Mar. 31, 2014 Loans And Leases From Non U S Entities	Mar. 31, 2014 Minimum Tax-exempt special facilities revenue bonds	Mar. 31, 2014 Maximum	Mar. 31, 2014 Maximum Tax-exempt special facilities revenue bonds	Mar. 31, 2014 Maximum Loans And Leases From Non U S Entities	Mar. 31, 2014 United Airlines, Inc. Employee	Apr. 24, 2014 Capital Addition Purchase Commitments Subsequent Event Embraer EMB175 aircraft Aircraft	Mar. 31, 2014 Capital Addition Purchase Commitments United Airlines, Inc. Boeing 737-900ER aircraft Aircraft	Mar. 31, 2014 Capital Addition Purchase Commitments United Airlines, Inc. Boeing 787-8 Aircraft	Mar. 31, 2014 Capital Addition Purchase Commitments United Airlines, Inc. Boeing 787-9 Aircraft	Mar. 31, 2014 Capital Addition Purchase Commitments United Airlines, Inc. Embraer EMB175 aircraft Aircraft	Mar. 31, 2014 Capital Addition Purchase Commitments United Airlines, Inc. Minimum	Mar. 31, 2014 Capital Addition Purchase Commitments United Airlines, Inc. Maximum
Commitments and Contingencies [Line Items]
New aircraft, scheduled delivery date																		2014	2025
Number of aircraft expected to be delivered														19	2	2	16
Number of aircraft without financing arrangement expected to be delivered													8
Guarantor obligations, maximum exposure				$ 1,900,000,000
Operating leases obligations				1,600,000,000
Capital leases obligations				269,000,000
Debt instrument, maturity year								2015		2038
Debt instrument principal amount					2,000,000,000	264,000,000	2,200,000,000
Debt instrument, remaining terms (years)									12 years		12 years
Borrowing capacity under revolving credit facility			1,000,000,000
Capacity available under the revolving credit facility		$ 1,000,000,000
Number of employees												87,000
Percentage of employees represented by various U.S. labor organizations	80.00%