GENERAL AND SUMMARY OF SIGNIFICANT ACCOUNTING POLICIES (TABLES)

12 Months Ended

Dec. 31, 2011

Accounting Policies [Abstract]

Property, Plant and Equipment [Table Text Block]

Property and equipment are recorded at cost and depreciated using the straight-line method over their estimated useful lives, which are as follows:

Aircraft and related flight equipment:
Boeing 737-400/700/800/900	20 years
Bombardier Q400	15 years
Buildings	25-30 years
Minor building and land improvements	10 years
Capitalized leases and leasehold improvements	Shorter of lease term or estimated useful life
Computer hardware and software	3-5 years
Other furniture and equipment	5-10 years

“Related flight equipment” includes rotable and repairable spare inventories, which are depreciated over the associated fleet life unless otherwise noted.

Mileage Plan Liabilities [Table Text Block]

Alaska’s Mileage Plan deferred revenue and liabilities are included under the following consolidated balance sheet captions at December 31 (in millions):

	2011		2010
Current Liabilities:
Other accrued liabilities	$	271.4	$	278.0
Other Liabilities and Credits:
Deferred revenue	392.2		382.1
Other liabilities	16.9		13.8
Total	$	680.5	$	673.9

Mileage Plan Revenue [Table Text Block]

Alaska’s Mileage Plan revenue is included under the following consolidated statements of operations captions for the years ended December 31 (in millions):

	2011		2010		2009
Passenger revenues	$	200.7	$	189.5	$	182.1
Other-net revenues	194.9		183.3		151.5
Total Mileage Plan revenues	$	395.6	$	372.8	$	333.6