ACCOUNTING CHANGES AND NEW ACCOUNTING PRONOUNCEMENTS

6 Months Ended

Jun. 30, 2015

Accounting Changes and Error Corrections [Abstract]

ACCOUNTING CHANGES AND ERROR CORRECTIONS

ACCOUNTING CHANGES AND NEW ACCOUNTING PRONOUNCEMENTS

On February 18, 2015, the Financial Accounting Standards Board ("FASB") and the International Accounting Standards Board issued a final standard that amends the current consolidation guidance. The standard amends both the variable interest entity and voting interest entity consolidation models. The standard is effective for public reporting entities in fiscal periods beginning after December 15, 2015, and early adoption is permitted. Once adopted, the Company will need to assess the potential for entity consolidation under a new consolidation model; however, the Company does not believe this will result in changes to its previous consolidation conclusions. The Company is continuing to evaluate the new guidance and plans to provide additional information about its impact and adoption date of the new standard in the future.

On May 28, 2014, the FASB issued Accounting Standards Update ("ASU") No. 2014-09, Revenue from Contracts with Customers. Following the FASB's finalization of a one year deferral of this standard, the ASU is now effective for fiscal years, and interim periods within those years, beginning on or after December 15, 2017, with early adoption permitted for fiscal years, and interim periods within those years, beginning on or after December 15, 2016. As discussed in Note 10, the material modification of the Company's co-branded credit card agreement during third quarter 2015 will require the use of the relative fair value approach for accounting for Rapid Reward point sales, thereby eliminating the use of the residual method of accounting in allocating funds from the sale of frequent flyer points to business partners. Subsequent to this change, the Company believes the most significant impact of this ASU on its accounting will be the elimination of the incremental cost method for frequent flyer accounting, which will require the Company to re-value its liability earned by Customers associated with flight points with a relative fair value approach. The Company is continuing to evaluate the new guidance and plans to provide additional information about its expected financial impact at a future date.