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.
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.