- United has begun unlocking the sliding privacy doors on its Polaris Suite and Polaris Studio seats, five months after their debut on the airline’s new 787-9 “United Elevated” Dreamliners.
- The doors were locked pending FAA certification confirming they can be opened from inside in an emergency, even if the normal mechanism fails.
- Engineers must manually activate the doors on each aircraft, so it could take several days — or longer — before the full “United Elevated” fleet has working doors.
- American Airlines faced the same delay on its 787-9 and A321XLR Business Class suites; the A321XLR doors were only certified last month and won’t be active fleet-wide until fall.
United Airlines is finally able to start unlocking the sliding privacy doors on its new Polaris suites, which are currently exclusively available on the carrier’s brand new fleet of Boeing 787-9 Dreamliners with the so-called ‘United Elevated’ interior.
The Chicago-based airline first unveiled its United Elevated interiors in May 2025, which feature 56 Polaris suites and eight Polaris Studio seats that offer even more room and come with an upgraded in-flight experience.
One of the standout features of both the Polaris Suite and Polaris Studio was new sliding privacy doors, a feature completely new to United Airlines flyers, although a detail that has been growing in popularity among a slew of major competitors in recent years.
United was expected to take delivery of its first ‘United Elevated’ 787 in late 2025, but delays at Boeing meant that the airline didn’t end up operating the plane commercially until the end of March 2026. Even then, the first Dreamliner (registration: N61101) with the new look interiors was beset with teething issues.
Polaris door now closes!
by u/fazzno in unitedairlines
Based on the highly customizable Adient Ascent seat, used by several other carriers, including Qatar Airways, the new Polaris Suites and Studios have had their sliding privacy doors locked shut for the past five months.
The reason is that United was waiting for the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) to certify the doors as being compliant with emergency egress rules. One of the key components of this certification process is that the FAA has to be confident that the door can be opened from the inside, even if the normal mechanism stops working.
For whatever reason, this certification process has taken a substantially long time, and only in the last couple of days has United received the all-clear from the FAA to start unlocking the doors on its new Dreamliners.
As the doors have to be initially unlocked by engineers, it could take several days, or perhaps even longer, for all of United’s new Dreamliners to have their sliding privacy doors activated.
Not that United is alone in facing delays in having the doors on its new Business Class seats unlocked. American Airlines faced exactly the same issue with the sliding privacy doors on its Business Class doors on its new Boeing 787-9 Dreamliners and Airbus A321XLRs.
It took several months for the doors on the 787s to be certified and then unlocked, while the privacy doors on the A321XLR Business Class suites were only certified last month. It will, however, take until the fall for American Airlines to activate the doors across its A321XLR fleet.
Suite doors are the most overrated feature of the newer Business Class cabins.