As crew we have to be seen to ask you to pull down the blind if a another customer complains but the customer next to the window has every right to refuse.

As somebody who often wants to sleep during daylight hours, my view is that typically an eye mask replicates darkness better than a reading light replicates daylight. So seems reasonable to me to use an eye mask if I want to sleep, and let people who want daylight have it through the windows.

It's not perfect for me, but seems less disruptive to body clocks than making others sit in the dark during daylight hours (increasingly seeing this attempted with centrally controlled window shades).

I like the blind up. As others have said, I like to watch the world go by and gate it being broad daylight outside and say 2pm yet others want to sleep. That's my major issue with the LAX flight. Arrives at 3pm into LHR yet 99% of the time, zero daylight until the wheels hit the ground (at least at the back).
By the same logic, no-one should eat on evening / night flights. 2hrs of meal service when I could be getting peace and quiet to doze / sleep in a darkened cabin. Never really seems to be too many people moaning about that.

On a different but related note - I flew Dreamliner for the first time (way off the pace I know). Loved the large dimmer windows on the night flight, but on the day flight - not a fan. No way to stop the beating sun heating up my body even on the max dim setting. No sleep for me.

I do find that the warmth of he sun through the windows makes me doze off whereas a closed blind doesn't. I'll just close my eyes and listen to music in this case.

Continuing in this vein, the correct wording is "could have simply used", not "could of..."

I am definitely in the 'he who sits by the window controls the blind' camp. Of course, if you want it closed then feel free to ask, but if the passenger by the window refuses, tough luck.

I had a fab flight on Iberia MAD-MIA earlier this year which left late morning. After lunch the forward J cabin had lights dimmed and blinds closed but given there were only a couple of people in the smaller J cabin we had blinds open and it was great - I felt less groggy on arrival than my wife who had been up front.

Ahh this is one of those things that everyone has an opinion on and no-one will ever agree on.

Personally, and I speak as someone who loves a window seat and can't really sleep on planes whatever the conditions so I would always prefer to keep my view, I still think it is rather selfish to keep your blind open when most are trying to sleep, and I bow to common courtesy.

Plenty of airlines now pretty much make it mandatory on overnight flights to close the blinds, particularly flying east when the sun will rise very early. For example, I fly from Bogotá to europe next week and with northern summer even leaving in the evening from Bog there's only a few hours of darkness. Given you leave in the evening and arrive mid-day/early afternoon, I think it's fair to try and let people maximise sleep after departure.

The problem is especially bad in economy because one window can illuminate an entire cabin and that is a lot of people. And the days of airlines giving out eye masks in economy are long gone.

In the end, it is public transport and a window seat does not actually give you control of the window, it's essentially a communal facility and it just gives you the right to be closest to it, you won't find anywhere that you are promised control of it. Hell you can buy a window seat and find there isn't even a window in that row and they won't tell you (I always find that very poor form by the airlines). I think if you are lighting up a whole cabin on a flight east and clearly disturbing a number of people, it's basic common courtesy to put it down.

I can see both sides of the argument here. Is it possible the person who had the blind up wanted the natural light in as it reduces eye strain or perhaps their body clock is currently in a different time zone than the other persons?

Although I can see why it might annoy the OP is that not what BA put eye masks in the First Amenity kits for :p

I tend to leave it shut whilst at cruise level myself personally

amazing how the population (and i'm not saying this is you, but genpop) whines about the health risk of drinking from single use plastic bottles, walking on airplane floors in just socks or barefeet, not eating this or that, against nuclear energy, yet few realize the amount of radiation you and others are exposed to by having the window open.

plus it's just rude. it creates brightness across the entire cabin during a night flight and there are perfect led bulbs that fix it, as, uh, you may not prefer it.

You do realise that the window shades are not made of lead, right? BA's F eyeshade is the finest out there on any carrier: soft, fuzzy, and with the perfect flaps to prevent any light seepage.

I'm not sure how relevant all that is, but if I'm heading west to the USA I will have the blind open throughout the flight. My goal is to get in to the local time zone as quickly as possible and I do that by staying awake - natural daylight helps me achieve that.

If I'm heading to SIN I will wake up 5-6 hours before arrival and my blind will be gradually raised over the first hour again to get in to the local time zone as quickly as possible - again natural daylight helps achieve that.

Those who wish to sleep can use the eye shades, I use them and they work great.

Come, now...these shutters are not made from lead!!!

(The radiation that can do damage to human cells passes through the airplane fuselage, the window, the window shade - none stop it).

Over the years I've come to realise that it's simply not possible to control what other people do.

If you don't like the blind open, use eye shades.
If you don't like someone in a lounge talking loudly use headphones or move somewhere else.

Tips for a stress free life traveling in public places.

I believe you mean transparent.