In the spring of 2026, we saw United Airlines start to take delivery of its latest batch of Boeing 787-9s, featuring an all-new onboard experience. These planes are in an ultra-premium configuration, with just 222 seats, including a staggering 64 business class seats, with new products across cabins.
One of the exciting developments on this plane is that the business class seats have privacy doors, which is a feature that many travelers value. However, up until now, it hasn’t actually been possible to use those doors, as they’ve been locked. There’s some good news on that front, as these are finally gradually being unlocked.
In this post:
United gets 787 business class suite doors certified
Aircraft seat certification is a real pain nowadays for airlines, and can greatly delay new aircraft. In the case of United’s new 787-9 business class seats, they fortunately got certified pretty quickly… for the most part. That’s not surprising, since the airline is using the Elevate Ascent product, which is designed primarily for the Dreamliner, and is already in use on other airlines.
The catch is that the seats have privacy doors, but up until now, they’ve been locked, and couldn’t be used by passengers. That has finally started to change. The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) has reportedly certified the doors for use on United’s 787s, meaning these can now be opened and closed.
A Reddit user shares a picture of the doors finally in use, and it appears that this flight was on the newly delivered 787-9 with the registration code N71108, which only entered commercial service on July 30, 2026.
Ultimately doors at business class seats aren’t some sort of a game changer, though if the planes have them installed, then it’s nice to have the option of using them.
It’ll take some time for all suite doors to be unlocked
Once business class suite doors are certified, you’d think they’d all be unlocked in a matter of hours, and that it would be a very easy process. Unfortunately that’s not actually the case, so I’d expect for it to potentially take weeks for the suite doors on all eight of United’s existing Dreamliners with new cabins to be unlocked.
Newly delivered 787s coming from the factory should come with the suite doors unlocked, so this is unlikely to be an issue going forward.
The long timeline for getting suite doors unlocked matches a similar situation at American. The airline has its new A321XLRs, and they have business class suites with doors. While these planes have been in service for months, the suite doors only got certified in recent days. The airline is now working on unlocking the suite doors, but anticipates that it’ll take “through the fall” to complete this project.
Bottom line
The FAA has finally certified United’s new Boeing 787-9 Polaris business class suite doors for use. Up until now, these doors have been locked due to lack of certification, but that has finally changed.
However, don’t expect them to be in use across the fleet effective immediately. While at least one plane now has the doors unlocked, it will take some time for the doors on other planes to be activated.
Nice to see Tim posting drivel. !!Yowzers
Excited to eventually fly on one of these...but I really hope by the time I do they have made a real improvement in the food... It's been enough time since the COVID changes to re-invest in the Polaris catering and the fact that they continue to deprioritize it year after year is frustrating.
Hopefully the upcoming 'chef-driven' menus featuring chefs from each hub airport will represent an actual quality change. If they can invest...
Excited to eventually fly on one of these...but I really hope by the time I do they have made a real improvement in the food... It's been enough time since the COVID changes to re-invest in the Polaris catering and the fact that they continue to deprioritize it year after year is frustrating.
Hopefully the upcoming 'chef-driven' menus featuring chefs from each hub airport will represent an actual quality change. If they can invest in the wine program, they can spend a bit more on food.
When do you think more planes will be added? Is AA still just with one A321XLR that has operational doors?
Is a closed door capable of protecting me from United's catering?
Glad United is finally getting this sorted out. As for the 789, I realize they're starting with SFO and IAH, but I'm hoping UA gets some of these new cabins on EWR routes soon enough. Looking forward to whenever the Coastliners get going, too.
As with AA's Flagship Suites on the 789 and XLR, change isn't always easy, but it’s usually worth the wait (really enjoyed AA's 789 on LHR-JFK last month.)
(@Tim Dunn, Delta...
Glad United is finally getting this sorted out. As for the 789, I realize they're starting with SFO and IAH, but I'm hoping UA gets some of these new cabins on EWR routes soon enough. Looking forward to whenever the Coastliners get going, too.
As with AA's Flagship Suites on the 789 and XLR, change isn't always easy, but it’s usually worth the wait (really enjoyed AA's 789 on LHR-JFK last month.)
(@Tim Dunn, Delta needs to hurry up and get those 1-1 lie-flat A321neos certified and flying! 44 recliners just don't cut it for 'premium' on a 5+ hour redeye...)
Delta has over 80 widebodies that have had suites with doors since the day they entered service; DL started its suites program a decade ago when the FAA got suites certified quickly.
The 35K is the next aircraft up at DL for the suites certification.
See the review that Matthew just posted about a 737-900ER on LAX-IAD?
"Delta has over 80 widebodies that have had suites with doors since the day they entered service" and yet no one cares because Delta charges an arm and a leg for them and don't fly them anywhere interesting. Oh and they'll fly them inconsistently on routes so you think you are paying for one and then boom you're in a clapped out 767.
I think I read elsewhere that both AA and UA maintenance permanently disabled the doors by either adding or subtracting a part. That way there was no way they could be operated. And that explains why it will take so long for both to get the doors working on existing aircraft.