LET THERE BE LIGHT

I recently took my first flight on a B787 Dreamliner. I’m wondering if the name was dreamt up because some airline operators just want you to sleep/dream through the whole flight, irrespective of your body clock? I boarded United flight from Singapore at 0600, landing in Tokyo Narita at 1410. Therefore, for the whole flight I was in daytime mode where, as most people would agree – and certainly my circadian rhythm concurred – you need to stay awake and alert: to read, eat, talk or enjoy the IFE.

The B787’s window shades are controlled by a somewhat complicated switch on the cabin wall and can be overridden by the crew. Twenty minutes into the flight, with the sun coming up, the crew turned the blinds to blackout mode, leaving the overhead lights the only way to illuminate the cabin. My body clock was screaming for natural daylight at 0700. I tried to override the blackout, which was tricky as I wasn’t in the window seat so had to lean over my neighbour. But it didn’t work as the crew had an override system.

We sat for seven hours in a long, dark tube, without daylight, until 20 minutes before landing. It was awful. I didn’t need another seven hours’ sleep, and it made it difficult to sleep at a normal time in Tokyo. I wonder if this makes life easier for the crew, who enjoy a cabin full of docile, undemanding passengers. I’d like to know if the crew has the right to do this, to override my needs as a customer, and what recourse I have when my body clock is disrupted for two days as a result? What is the etiquette of who controls the blinds in a three-seat configuration? Most window passengers seem to think they control it for the row and don’t need to ask anyone else.