New United Polaris Business Class Seats Leaked: What To Expect

Tomorrow is a big day for United Airlines, as the Chicago-based carrier is expected to officially unveil its new Polaris business class seats. However, the first pictures have just leaked ahead of the reveal.

United hints at big announcement for May 13

On Instagram, United is teasing a big reveal for Tuesday, May 13, 2025. A short video simply shows what looks like aircraft windows, with text moving across the screen, reading “BE THE FIRST TO KNOW.” Between each of the words, there’s a picture of one detail of what’s presumably the new cabin.

The airline is hosting an event in Brooklyn tomorrow, which select media and MileagePlus members have been invited to attend. Connecting the dots, it seems pretty clear that this is what the announcement is in reference to.

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Here’s a further fun twist — as flagged by reader raylan, the first picture of the new seats from the event has actually been leaked on Reddit. It’s not necessarily the clearest picture, but it gives us a good sense of the updated design.

United introduced its current Polaris business class back in late 2016, so we’re approaching a decade of the current product being in service. United has done a great job with product consistency across the wide body fleet, though presumably United will be trading that consistency for an upgraded and somewhat flashier product.

What we know about United’s new Polaris business class

While nothing is 100% sure, all signs point to United introducing its new Polaris business class product on newly delivered Boeing 787-9s. Not only will the upcoming batch of 787s feature new cabins, but they’ll also be in the most premium configuration we’ve ever seen from the airline, with 64 Polaris business class seats.

I certainly could be mistaken, though my guess is that United’s new Polaris business class will be a customized version of the Adient Ascent seat. That’s because the seat maps that we’ve seen leaked so far shown a mix of reverse herringbone seats along the windows, and herringbone seats along the center. There aren’t many modern products with that layout, other than the Adient Ascent configuration. The above pictures also match that, best I can tell.

Qatar Airways was the launch customer for this product, on its Boeing 787-9s, and Hawaiian Airlines was the second airline to introduce this product, also on the 787-9s. This is also American’s new 787-9 business class, for its newly delivered premium jets.

The expectation is that United will also have a “premium business class” product in the first row, featuring extra space and amenities. It remains to be seen how that will be sold (whether it’s a fixed upgrade fee for any Polaris passenger, or what).

Ultimately this isn’t going to be some sort of earth shattering business class product, but:

• It’ll feature doors at business class seats, which is increasingly becoming the norm
• You can expect greatly updated tech, from bluetooth audio to USB-C charging, which is just a function of the seat being introduced in recent times (seat tech has come a long way in the past few years)
• Ultimately there’s lots of merit to picking one of the “off the shelf” products, since you don’t want to end up in a never-ending certification and supply chain constraint loop, like what we’ve seen with Lufthansa Allegris

So I could be wrong, but that’s my guess, and we should find out all the details in under 24 hours…

Bottom line

United Airlines is making a big announcement tomorrow, and it’s expected that the airline will be unveiling its new business class product. While we don’t officially know any details yet (aside from the above leak), I think it’s likely that the airline selects the Adient Ascent product, with a front row “business class plus” experience.

What are you expecting from United’s new Polaris announcement? Get your guesses in now!