Employee Benefit Plans

3 Months Ended

Mar. 31, 2021

Employee-related Liabilities [Abstract]

EMPLOYEE BENEFIT PLANS

EMPLOYEE BENEFIT PLANS

Defined Benefit Pension and Other Postretirement Benefit Plans. The Company's net periodic benefit cost includes the following components for the three months ended March 31 (in millions):

	Pension Benefits				Other Postretirement Benefits				Affected Line Item in the Statements of  Consolidated Operations
	2021		2020		2021		2020
Service cost	$	60	$	54	$	2	$	2	Salaries and related costs
Interest cost	46		56		6		7		Miscellaneous, net
Expected return on plan assets	(71)		(91)		—		—		Miscellaneous, net
Amortization of unrecognized (gain) loss	43		35		(7)		(11)		Miscellaneous, net
Amortization of prior service credit	—		—		(31)		(31)		Miscellaneous, net
Special termination benefits	—		—		46		—		Miscellaneous, net
Other	—		3		—		—		Miscellaneous, net
Total	$	78	$	57	$	16	$	(33)

As part of a first quarter VSL program, the Company offered special termination benefits in the form of additional subsidies for retiree medical costs for certain U.S.-based front-line employees. The subsidies are in the form of a one-time contribution into the employee's Retiree Health Account of $125,000 for full-time employees and $75,000 for part-time employees. As a result, the Company recorded $46 million for those additional benefits in the first quarter of 2021.

Share-Based Compensation. In the three months ended March 31, 2021, UAL granted share-based compensation awards pursuant to the United Continental Holdings, Inc. 2017 Incentive Compensation Plan. These share-based compensation awards included 2.8 million restricted stock units ("RSUs"), consisting of 1.2 million time-vested RSUs and 1.6 million short-term performance-based RSUs. The time-vested RSUs vest equally in 25% increments every 6 months over a two-year period from the date of grant (on August 31st and February 28th). The short-term performance-based RSUs vest upon the achievement of established goals based on financial and customer satisfaction metrics for the performance period January 1, 2021 to December 31, 2021. RSUs are generally equity awards settled in stock for domestic employees and liability awards settled in cash for international employees. The cash payments are based on the 20-day average closing price of UAL common stock immediately prior to the vesting date.

The table below presents information related to share-based compensation (in millions):

	Three Months Ended March 31,
	2021		2020
Share-based compensation expense	$	34	$	18
	March 31, 2021		December 31, 2020
Unrecognized share-based compensation	$	203	$	88