United Airlines has 140 new Boeing 787s on order, which they will use to grow their fleet and to replace Boeing 767 and 777-200 aircraft. They’ve been working on a new business class product for several years, and it appears that this seat will debut with the delivery of new Boeing 787-9s.

Aviation watchdog JonNYC broke the news about the configuration of these planes, which are going to be super-premium featuring 64 business class seats (16 rows of 1-2-1), where bulkhead rows will feature additional space and comfort. He expects the airline to announce the new seat in “early May.”

LET ME RETRACT the part about it being false that this has been disseminated — sorry for that error!
Bulkhead Polaris seats having ottomans (for a companion to dine, etc etc

— JonNYC (@xjonnyc.bsky.social) April 19, 2025 at 5:32 PM

United’s current 787-9s have 48 business class seats – themselves premium-heavy. American Airlines has 30 business class seats on their current 787-9s and has gotten a lot of attention for their plan to move to 51 business seats on their new delivery planes (featuring new business suites with doors).

Current Boeing 777-300ER Business Class Cabin

United will have 25% more business class seats than even the new American configuration, 37.5% more than their current premium-heavy offering, and twice as many business class seats as Delta on its Airbus A350-900.

Current United Polaris Seat

Matthew Klint confirms that the new business seats will have doors and wireless charging pads. Doors had remained an open question since the FAA has been requiring more staffing for cabins with doors. JetBlue actually disabled the doors on some of its Mint suites because the FAA wanted more cabin crew onboard to monitor that the doors were locked open for takeoff and landing. Perhaps that will be less of an issue with a Trump administration less inclined towards pushing regulations to grow union jobs.

There are two business class cabins in the layout, and the forward cabin is reverse herringbone with window seats facing out towards the windows. The rear cabin is a mix of herringbone and reverse herringbone. One Mile at a Time thinks that the Adient Ascent seat is most likely. Hawaiian Airlines uses it with their 787s, and American will be using it for their new suites as well.

There will be 35 premium economy seats (5 rows in a 2-3-2 configuration) as well as 123 economy seats – 39 of which will be extra-legroom economy plus. That’s 14 more premium economy seats than their current 787-9s, and 65 fewer economy seats. They are gaining 39 premium seats while only losing 26 total seats on the aircraft.

Premium economy has been a real airline sweet spot – increased revenue without taking up nearly as much increased footprint on the aircraft as business class. And along with United adding 35 premium economy seats to these planes, JonNYC intimates plans for United to retrofit some existing aircraft with more premium economy seats as well.

Then 5 rows of Premium Plus behind.

I'd definitely expect UA to add a couple rows of Premium Plus to others besides this particular config.

The wall behind makes that a little trickier — possibly requiring a recertification, etc. But I'd expect it down the line.

— JonNYC (@xjonnyc.bsky.social) April 21, 2025 at 10:36 AM

United Airlines has been working on improvements to business class. They updated the bedding and amenity kits. They’ve set a new U.S. carrier standard for business class wine. They’ve come to believe that investing more in meals helps them sell premium tickets.

However the Polaris business class seat remains a laggard. It was a ‘me too’ product back when it was first introduced in 2017. Approved by penny-pinching disgraced former CEO Jeff Smisek, it was meant to stop the bleeding – customers were avoiding United business class because it lacked direct aisle access even. This seat was chosen because they could get lie flat direct aisle access without taking up more cabin real estate compared to 2-2-2 seating. There’s not a lot of space per passenger. There’s basically no storage space, either.

While the overall cabin ambiance is nice, the seat itself lags even American’s primary current seat (Super Diamond) and American is introducing a new suite with doors. Delta business class seats are far better, outside of their Boeing 767 fleet. United’s seats lag British Airways, Air France, and even joint venture partners Air Canada (which will be getting a new seat) and Lufthansa’s new Allegris seat.

United was looking at new seat options with doors three years ago. They even had customers provide feedback on new seat options with doors in 2022. The airline has known they need to move on this, especially as they adopt a premium posture focused on brand loyalty, and it looks like they’re finally about to after much delay – which is no doubt attributable to the delay in Boeing deliveries.