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Revenue
9 Months Ended
Sep. 30, 2019
Revenue from Contract with Customer [Abstract]  
REVENUE REVENUE
Revenue by Geography. The following table presents operating revenue by geographic region (in millions):
 
Three Months Ended September 30,
 
Nine Months Ended September 30,
 
2019
 
2018
 
2019
 
2018
Domestic (U.S. and Canada)
$
7,094

 
$
6,762

 
$
20,056

 
$
18,927

Atlantic
2,103

 
2,073

 
5,627

 
5,427

Pacific
1,280

 
1,339

 
3,867

 
3,855

Latin America
903

 
829

 
2,821

 
2,603

Total
$
11,380

 
$
11,003

 
$
32,371

 
$
30,812


Advance Ticket Sales. All tickets sold at any given point of time have travel dates extending up to 12 months. The Company defers amounts related to future travel in its Advance ticket sales liability account. As a result, the balance of the Company's Advance ticket sales liability represents activity that will be recognized in the next 12 months. In the three and nine months ended September 30, 2019, the Company recognized approximately $4.1 billion and $3.4 billion, respectively, and in the three and nine months ended September 30, 2018, the Company recognized approximately $4.1 billion and $3.0 billion, respectively, of passenger revenue for tickets that were included in Advance ticket sales at the beginning of those periods.
Ancillary Fees. The Company charges fees, separately from ticket sales, for certain ancillary services that are directly related to passengers' travel, such as ticket change fees, baggage fees, inflight amenities fees, and other ticket-related fees. These ancillary fees are part of the travel performance obligation and, as such, are recognized as passenger revenue when the travel occurs. The Company recorded $645 million and $1.9 billion of ancillary fees within passenger revenue in the three and nine months ended September 30, 2019, respectively. The Company recorded $572 million and $1.6 billion of ancillary fees within passenger revenue in the three and nine months ended September 30, 2018, respectively.
Frequent Flyer Accounting. The table below presents a roll forward of Frequent flyer deferred revenue (in millions):
 
Three Months Ended September 30,
 
Nine Months Ended September 30,
 
2019
 
2018
 
2019
 
2018
Total Frequent flyer deferred revenue - beginning balance
$
5,198

 
$
4,989

 
$
5,005

 
$
4,783

Miles awarded
662

 
616

 
1,951

 
1,826

Travel miles redeemed (Passenger revenue)
(607
)
 
(580
)
 
(1,634
)
 
(1,508
)
Non-travel miles redeemed (Other operating revenue)
(34
)
 
(38
)
 
(103
)
 
(114
)
Total Frequent flyer deferred revenue - ending balance
$
5,219

 
$
4,987

 
$
5,219

 
$
4,987


In the three and nine months ended September 30, 2019, the Company recognized, in Other operating revenue, $489 million and $1.5 billion, respectively, related to the marketing, advertising, non-travel miles redeemed (net of related costs) and other travel-related benefits of the mileage revenue associated with our various partner agreements including, but not limited to, our Chase co-brand agreement. The Company recognized $480 million and $1.5 billion, respectively, in the three and nine months ended September 30, 2018, related to those revenues. The portion related to the MileagePlus miles awarded of the total amounts received from our various partner agreements is deferred and presented in the table above as an increase to the frequent flyer liability.