gmt4

Exactly. There's little to see up at altitude anyway. If you think there is, you're delusional. People need to consider the other 200+ people on the flight.

I recently flew CX LHR-HKG-MEL return in business class and the first thing the crew did was go around and make people put their shades down. Even on the night departures. It made for a very comfortable flight. There were no inconsiderate people keeping their shades up blasting light at others. I applaud airlines that do that on long haul flights.

Diver Boy

I don't mind when it is a request to close the blind due to the light affecting over passengers but I had the experience where it was a daytime flight, the IFE wasn't working so I wanted to read. I had the cabin crew demand (not ask) that I close the blind. When I switched on my reading light the cabin crew immediately stomped over to demand that I turn it off. When I enquired as to why, her response was you must. You should be sleeping. This was also a crew that tried to avoid all the customer service elements of the job. My take was that they wanted to be paid for not doing their contracted roles (they had even done a PA to suggest everyone slept).

MADPhil

I am happy to have the shades closed on a night flight because you don't want the sunrise blasting in, though I like to have control because you can get a good view of the aurora on a TATL sometimes. On a day flight I find the darkness oppressive and claustrophobic. Modern video screens are quite visible in moderate light and those who want to sleep are better off using sleep masks anyway.

nrr

Unless a FA stands at your seat for the entire flt. you could open the shade the moment FA left his "police" position.
I doubt you would be arrested for "disobeying a crew directive".

LondonElite

About one hour into a recent flight TXL-EWR (which leaves at around 930 and there is hardly any connecting traffic into that flight) I had one FA ask me to close my shade. The flight was less than half full. I said I had work to do and wanted daylight. She said that some people wanted the plane to be dark, to which I replied, that I'm sorry, but it's daytime and I am not going to spend the next seven hours in artificial darkness. That was the end of that.

FlyerTalker688786

At 30000 feet, the effect of sunshine on human skin is not thoroughly studied. But the general consent is that the less direct sun at that altitude the better. I am in the camp of no window open although Iike to watch plane taking off and landing.

People also had to remember you get a window seat does not mean that you own the window. There are other people next to you may have other needs and their health and well being is something you need to consider.

for that reason I love B788. Good on airline that enforce the policy of dimmed cabin.

asf-07

If you keep your shade open on DFW-HKG (a full "daytime" flight), I probably don't like you much.

ashill

I'm pretty skeptical of the claim that there is much risk of UV exposure (I assume it's UV you're referring to) inside the cabin. Sunlight does not directly enter much of the cabin, since airplane windows are small enough so that the sun is too high except at sunrise and sunset, when it's propagating through a much longer atmospheric path length which will attenuate the UV anyway. I see a credible-looking study (Sanlorenzo et al 2014) indicating that significant amounts of UVA transmit through cockpit glass (up to about 50%), so I see the concern for pilots who have much more direct sunlight exposure: cockpit glass attenuates UVA by about 50% and the UV intensity of the sun at 30,000 is about twice that on the ground, so it seems like being in the cockpit is roughly equivalent to being outdoors on a sunny day in terms of UVA. But this concern for passengers -- especially those not in the window seat -- does not seem to be based in physics to me.

There may be some health concerns for frequent flyers (especially crew who spend even more time at 30,000 feet) due to the accumulated X-rays, but lowering the window shade doesn't help with that, and that exposure is also low based on the evidence.

ijgordon

Well of course you don't own it--the airline does--but I would argue you certainly have the right to control it. That's the whole point of a window seat. @:-)

If controlling the window is important to them, they should sit in a window seat. @:-)

FWIW, I'm more apt to "consider" others' needs when the issue is either (1) sun directly shining into someones eyes, or (2) glare on an IFE screen. Sleeping doesn't count, that's why there are eyeshades. @:-)

jordyn

You know what is thoroughly studied? The importance of sunlight in circadian rhythms, and the negative health consequences of disrupting them. Making the cabin dark on a daytime flight is at a minimum helping to screw up everyone's sleep for the next few days and at the margins is bad for their broader health.

lalala

lalala

gmt4

Dimming the cabin down for a few hours isn't going screw up their sleep for days. Crossing ten times zones will.

jordyn

While I agree that crossing ten timezones is always going to be rough, one of the important effects of exposure to sunlight is to help reset the circadian rhythms. Rather than just throwing around random assertions, here's some free reading on the topic from the NIH:

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4632990/

Dave Noble

I always find it odd that crew or passengers would expect a day flight eastbound across the north atlantic to turn into a pseudo night flight - AA90 , for example, departs at around 09:15 and arrives 7.5 hours later at 22:45

Do many people sleep all night, then sleep for 7 hours and then go to bed?

There may be some that have connected from afar and may be off on sleep time, but if that tired can still nap in the daylight

there are plenty of night flight options for those who want to be in darkness on an aeroplane