United Airlines business class (“Polaris”) has been an industry laggard for years. When they introduced new seats nine years ago it was a ‘just good enough’ product.

Designed under disgraced former CEO Jeff Smisek, it was the ultimate penny pincher product. It checked the box of lie flat and direct aisle access, but allocated less space to each seat than other airlines. They managed to keep just as many Polaris seats in the same footprint of a Boeing 777 as they had when flying six-abreast business class (Diamond) seats.

And while the original Polaris soft product was very good, largely only the Saks bedding remained premium. There were service cutbacks (fewer flight attendants working the cabin), food cutbacks, and wine cutbacks.

Recently, though, United has really raised the bar on business class wine and they’re rolling out a gorgeous business class product on new delivery Boeing 787-9s that resembles American’s gorgeous new business class on the same plane.

One area that United has specifically lagged is their over‑ear “noise-reducing” headphones, which aren’t really true noise‑cancelling and considered by most flyers to be cheap. At best some consider them to be usable, though many passengers prefer just to bring their own.

In contrast, American Airlines – in most dimensions not considered a premium international airline – provides excellent Bang & Olufsen noise‑cancelling headphones in business class.

Back in May when announcing their new 787-9 business class, United revealed that their upcoming Polaris Studio suites (bulkhead premium rows) would include new noise‑canceling headphones from Meridian technology. That was only for the Studio suites, though, not all of business class – at least that’s all that was promised at the time.

Since then, the Meridian website stated “From September 2025, Meridian headsets will be available in all United Polaris Business Class cabins, with further developments planned as the partnership evolves.” United never shared this!

Although they’ve now shared it internally, with employees, as revealed by aviation watchdog JonNYC:

UA pic.twitter.com/2wCb1otCqx

— JonNYC (@xJonNYC) August 29, 2025

New headphones launch in long haul business class and premium economy starting Monday, September 1 – with premium cross country and long haul Hawaii flighs getting these “by mid-September.” Expanding this to premium economy, even, is a great step forward!