A rude passenger on a flight over the Arctic has people talking.
Even though commercial airlines have been taking flight for 112 years, questions about etiquette still spark heated debates. Who gets the middle seat armrest? How many bags are fair to put in the overhead compartment? And one small argument continues to rage: Should the window shade be up or down, and who gets to decide?
While plenty of online discussions ping-pong the debate, the topic went viral last month after a woman documented a flight across the Arctic Ocean. Passenger Kelly Meng was flying in an economy seat from Chicago to Tokyo when, unfortunately, a fellow passenger didn’t comply with others’ wishes.
Very sunny flight
She explained in a TikTok video that the windows on this flight didn’t have “traditional shutters,” but rather dimmers that never allow them to get “100 percent opaque.” Because the flight is long (about 13 hours), many passengers wanted to sleep after dinner service, she said. But one passenger refused to dim their window beyond 75%, even after another traveler said the bright sun was blinding his eyes.
At one point, Meng said, a flight attendant gently asked the woman to dim her window, but she refused. Meng concluded, “The lack of self-awareness is insane.”
Unsurprisingly, many commenters sided with the window-seat passenger.
“Imo, whomever pays for and sits in the window seats controls the window,” wrote one commenter, who received nearly 4,000 likes.
Another person agreed: “Unpopular opinion, but bring an eye mask if it’s going to bug you. I totally see your point in this particular case, but I like to have my window open on shorter flights, especially if we’re flying over somewhere scenic.”
A few others agreed with Meng. “Idk how people are siding with the ‘window seat’ person,” one commenter noted. “It’s as if someone is playing music over speakers and telling other people to put on their own headphones if you don’t want to hear the music.”
Another commenter added, in part, that a bright window can make the cabin hot: “I don’t think people realize that having the shades open during daytime flights is not only blinding, but it also makes the cabin HOT. Especially if you’ve got the sun directly beaming on you.”
Flight attendant settles it
Upworthy spoke with a flight attendant for a major airline who preferred to go by the name Simone for this piece. She offered a definitive answer, but it’s slightly more complicated than one might think.
“The person next to the window controls the shade, and it should be down if the sun is making the cabin too bright,” Simone said. “However, most people in the window seats are nervous travelers or children. We can’t ask anyone to lower their shades during flight, we can only ‘mean mug’ them when we walk by.”
She offered this tidbit on how flight attendants sometimes get around the issue: “On the 787, the electric windows can be controlled by the flight attendants, and we aren’t supposed to set them on 5 and lock them, but we do.”
As for takeoffs and landings: “Window shades should be up for takeoff and landing so flight attendants have visibility in case of an emergency. That’s the only time we can request the position of the window shade.”
To be clear, while the airline doesn’t officially state a preference for in-flight shade position, Simone shared her own:
“For ‘blank’ sake, lower the shade and go to sleep. You can only look at the clouds for so long. One problem is the sun shines so bright in the cabin and some people can’t see their laptops while trying to do work or read on their tablets. I hate when the shades are up during the day. Nobody needs to see my large pores and runny nose while I’m serving them sodas and snacks.”
