NOTES TO CONSOLIDATED FINANCIAL STATEMENTS OF AMERICAN AIRLINES, INC. Passenger Revenue Loyalty Revenue Mileage credits sold to co-branded credit cards and other partners Mileage credits earned through travel American sells mileage credits to participating airline partners and non-airline business partners including American’s co-branded credit card partners, under contracts with terms extending generally for one to nine years. Consideration received from the sale of mileage credits is variable and payment terms typically are within 30 days subsequent to the month of mileage sale. Sales of mileage credits to non-airline business partners are comprised of two components, transportation and marketing. American allocates the consideration received from these sales of mileage credits based on the relative selling price of each product or service delivered. American’s most significant partner agreements are its co-branded credit card agreements with Citi and Barclaycard US that American entered into in 2016. American identified the following revenue elements in these co-branded credit card agreements: the transportation component; and the use of intellectual property, including the American brand and access to loyalty program member lists, which is the predominant element in the agreements, as well as advertising (collectively, the marketing component). Accordingly, American recognizes the marketing component in other revenue in the period of the mileage sale following the sales-based royalty method. 142 For mileage credits earned through travel, American applies a relative selling price approach whereby the total amount collected from each passenger ticket sale is allocated between the air transportation and the mileage credits earned. The portion of each passenger ticket sale attributable to mileage credits earned is initially deferred and then recognized in passenger revenue when mileage credits are redeemed and transportation is provided. The estimated selling price of mileage credits is determined using an equivalent ticket value approach, which uses historical data, including award redemption patterns by geographic region and class of service, as well as similar fares as those used to settle award redemptions. The estimated selling price of miles is adjusted for an estimate of miles that will not be redeemed based on historical redemption patterns. American currently operates the loyalty program, AAdvantage. This program awards mileage credits to passengers who fly on American, any one world airline or other partner airlines, or by using the services of other program participants, such as the Citi and Barclaycard US co-branded credit cards, hotels and car rental companies. Mileage credits can be redeemed for travel on American and other participating partner airlines, as well as other non-air travel awards such as hotels and rental cars. For mileage credits earned by AAdvantage loyalty program members, American applies the deferred revenue method in accordance with the New Revenue Standard. Various taxes and fees assessed on the sale of tickets to end customers are collected by American as an agent and remitted to taxing authorities. These taxes and fees have been presented on a net basis in the accompanying consolidated statements of operations and recorded as a liability until remitted to the appropriate taxing authority. The majority of tickets sold are nonrefundable. A small percentage of tickets, some of which are partially used tickets, expire unused. Due to complex pricing structures, refund and exchange policies, and interline agreements with other airlines, certain amounts are recognized in passenger revenue using estimates regarding both the timing of the revenue recognition and the amount of revenue to be recognized. These estimates are generally based on the analysis of American’s historical data. American has consistently applied this accounting method to estimate revenue from forfeited tickets at the date of travel. Estimated future refunds and exchanges included in the air traffic liability are routinely evaluated based on subsequent activity to validate the accuracy of American’s estimates. Any adjustments resulting from periodic evaluations of the estimated air traffic liability are included in passenger revenue during the period in which the evaluations are completed. American recognizes all revenues generated from transportation on American and its regional flights operated under the brand name American Eagle, including associated baggage fees, ticketing change fees and other inflight services, as passenger revenue when transportation is provided. Ticket and other related sales for transportation that has not yet been provided are initially deferred and recorded as air traffic liability on American’s consolidated balance sheets. The air traffic liability principally represents tickets sold for future travel on American and partner airlines, as well as estimated future refunds and exchanges of tickets sold for past travel. American attributes passenger revenue by geographic region based upon the origin and destination of each flight segment.