Revenue

3 Months Ended

Mar. 31, 2020

Revenue from Contract with Customer [Abstract]

Revenue by Geography. The table below presents the Company's operating revenue by principal geographic region (as defined by the U.S. Department of Transportation) (in millions):



	Three Months Ended March 31,
	2020		2019
Domestic (U.S. and Canada)	$	5,078	$	5,875
Atlantic	1,215		1,458
Pacific	806		1,281
Latin America	880		975
Total	$	7,979	$	9,589

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. The Company's Advance ticket sales liability also includes credits issued to customers on electronic travel certificates ("ETCs"), primarily for ticket cancellations, which can be applied towards a purchase of a new ticket. In April 2020, due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the Company extended the expiration dates of ETCs from 12 months from the date of issuance to 24 months from the date of issuance. Given the uncertainty of travel demand caused by COVID-19, the Company is unable to estimate the amount of the December 31, 2019 Advance ticket sales that will be recognized in revenue in 2020 compared to amounts refunded to customers or exchanged into ETCs. The Company will review its breakage estimates as a result of these changes as future information is received.

In the three months ended March 31, 2020 and 2019, the Company recognized approximately $2.6 billion and $2.7 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 $476 million and $571 million of ancillary fees within passenger revenue in the three months ended March 31, 2020 and 2019, respectively.

Frequent Flyer Accounting. The table below presents a roll forward of Frequent flyer deferred revenue (in millions):



	Three Months Ended March 31,
	2020			2019
Total Frequent flyer deferred revenue - beginning balance	$	5,276		$	5,005
Total miles awarded	559			607
Travel miles redeemed (Passenger revenue)	(322		)	(438		)
Non-travel miles redeemed (Other operating revenue)	(25		)	(36		)
Total Frequent flyer deferred revenue - ending balance	$	5,488		$	5,138

In the three months ended March 31, 2020 and 2019, the Company recognized, in Other operating revenue $530 million and $473 million, 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 JPMorgan Chase Bank, N.A. ("Chase") co-brand agreement. The Company entered into a Third Amended and Restated Co-Branded Card Marketing Services Agreement (as amended from time to time, the "Co-Brand Agreement") with Chase. The Co-Brand Agreement extended the term of the agreement into 2029 and modified certain other terms, resulting in a different allocation among the separately identifiable performance obligations and improved MileagePlus-related revenue for the first quarter of 2020 as compared to the year-ago period. 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. We determine the current portion of our frequent flyer liability based on expected redemptions in the next 12 months. Given the uncertainty in travel demand caused by COVID-19, we currently estimate a greater percentage of award redemptions will occur beyond 12 months, however this estimate may change as travel demand and award redemptions become clearer in future periods.