Last weekend we flew LHR-GIG in Club World. When I booked the flights in late November, of the 35 CW seats on this 787 Dreamliner, all 10 window seats were already taken. Even when check-in opened at T-24, no additional seats became available.

During take-off, the passengers whom I could see in the window seats didn't look out of the window once, and as soon as we finished the initial climb after take-off, they dimmed the windows, which blocked out all natural light. I complained to the cabin crew who switched on the cabin lights, which meant we could just about see our lunch while we ate it. We were forced to spend the rest of the flight in darkness - a daytime flight that pushed back on time at 11:25 and arrived well before its scheduled arrival time of 21:15. The time difference at this time of year between the UK and Rio de Janeiro is only 2 hours, so a change of time zone was no reason for the enforced darkness. While waiting for the loo, I spoke to both the first officer and the CSD, who agreed with my point of view, confirming it was the passengers and not the crew who had dimmed the windows in CW, but they said that it is British Airways' policy to allow passengers in window seats to control the daylight for the whole cabin.

I could see that in the WT and WT+ cabins, a minority of window seat passengers had thoughtfully maintained natural light for the benefit of all, but in CW just 10 CW passengers are given the power to selfishly enforce darkness on the remainder of the 35 passengers. On previous LHR-GIG flights, it had not been a problem because I had a window seat and I had ensured that natural light was not unreasonably denied.

As a result of being deprived of daylight for nearly all of this 11½-hour daytime flight, it disrupted our body clocks, and we woke up for long periods during the subsequent night. Particularly on a 787 Dreamliner where the window dimming can be controlled remotely, I believe that the power of a minority to selfishly deprive the majority of daylight should be removed, particularly where the impact lasts longer than the flight itself. If passengers don't like being next to a source of natural light, then they should avoid booking window seats instead of selfishly depriving other passengers of natural light.

By coincidence, I had recently seen this very relevant article, which concurs with our experience: https://edition.cnn.com/travel/artic...ion/index.html