I’m sitting in business class on a Delta 777 en route from Beijing to Detroit, flying at 35,000 feet over a stunningly beautiful Arctic seascape of ice and snow. The only reason I know this is because I went up to the flight attendant area and looked out their windows. The cabin I am sitting in is dark, as my fellow passengers sleep (mostly), read, or play solitaire.

Am I the only one who wants to look out the window? We’re at 72 degrees latitude, well north of Alaska, and I (and everyone on the plane, I suspect) will never, ever get to see this place other than on a plane. Yet no one seems interested. The flight crew certainly isn’t, although they did allow me to look out the galley window. I asked if it would be “rude” to raise my window blinds, and they opined that it would. (They also informed me that since we were taking a “polar route” we would be passing over the North Pole – doubtful.)

OK, I see some reasons to keep us in the dark. Half the plane can’t see out the window (more than half in the back). It makes sense to sleep in this direction – and an open window would make it hard for some people to sleep - but the cabin was just as dark on the way over to China, when it made no sense to sleep.

But I’m just curious – am I the only one who loves to look out the window and finds the usual practice a bit irritating?