Boeing77W

The use of the cabin lighting is written into the service standards with predetermined scenes for each stage of the flight and is dependent on time of day and cabin. The usual caveat that the crew have the option to change things about if needed still applies.

The 787 has a number of preset scenes that work roughly along the lines of: Day/Night Boarding - TTOL - Day/Night Main - Sleep - 2nd meal - 40min call (the use of this scene appears to have been removed from the standards). There are also the presets of White Bright and White Low. Between these scenes are timed transitions, for example I think it takes about 3 minutes for the lights to dim when 'Sleep' is selected and about 5 minutes to go from 'Sleep' to '2nd meal'.

There are various requirements for reasons of safety and security that dictate light settings prior to boarding, for example lights need to be as bright as possible for cabin security checks. In my experience as a passenger, I don't think crew make the best use of the lighting. I've often been sat there in White Bright for the majority of a day flight, or woken up after a night flight to the lights just coming on bright rather than use the scenes mentioned above. These scenes have been designed to allow for a gradual transition between stages of service. While the competitors do indeed make much more use of mood lighting, there's no reason why (under normal circumstances) a BA customer should be sat under lighting that resembles a doctors surgery at any stage of a 787 flight. It's a shame as it's such a simple thing and it does impact on the customer experience.