There’s a long-standing, quiet battle happening in airplane cabins around the world, and it’s all about window shades.
Who actually owns control of the shade — the person sitting in the window seat, the cabin crew, or the row as a collective? (Opinions remain fairly divided.) Is it better for the shade to stay open or closed throughout the flight?
Between viral social media debates and endless discussions on flight etiquette, everyone seems to have an opinion, and so do I. For nearly a decade, I worked as a flight attendant with an international airline.
That means I’ve examined thousands of window shades before takeoff and landing to ensure they were open, just as I checked seatbacks were upright.
Many airlines require the shades to be open during these times, which makes sense to me from a safety standpoint. It’s helpful to have a clear view outside in an emergency, and in case ground rescue teams need to see inside the plane.
However, once we hit cruising altitude, those safety rules pause, and my personal one kicks in: The window shades should be closed while we’re in the air.
I’ve found that open shades can ruin sleep cycles and make a cabin rowdier
I honestly hate it when passengers keep their shades wide open, and it’s especially bad on long, international flights. I know firsthand how crossing multiple time zones can be exhausting for the body.
Often, the best way to save passengers from severe jet lag is to help them get quality sleep in the air — and let’s be honest, as a flight attendant, I definitely had a vested interest in keeping everyone happy and well-rested.
So, on long flights, my crew and I would intentionally dim the cabin lights to simulate nighttime and encourage everyone to rest. Even so, it only took one open window shade to ruin that peaceful environment for an entire section of the plane.
When blinding sunlight poured in, it didn’t just wake sleeping passengers — it also created a terrible glare on laptops, tablets, and phones.
I’ve lost track of how many frustrated passengers rang their call buttons to complain to me about it, and how often I ended up having to mediate arguments about window shades.
Early on in my career, I also observed how ambient light seemed to directly change passenger behavior. Whenever we dimmed the cabin lights, travelers seemed to naturally settle down, read quietly, or go to sleep.
But when a flight stayed brightly lit, passengers more often stayed awake, chatted loudly, and ordered more alcohol, sometimes turning the flight into a party.
All in all, keeping the cabin dark tended to make the entire flight so much calmer, safer, and easier for us to manage. As my colleagues and I always used to say: A sleeping passenger is the best passenger!
If you’re looking for good views and photos, you’re better off waiting anyway
One of the most common reason passengers give for keeping their shades up is to take photos or enjoy the view. Although I completely understand the desire for a great aerial shot, the reality at 35,000 feet is usually underwhelming.
Most of the time, all you can see out the window is blinding white haze, cloud cover, or vast emptiness. The direct sunlight at high altitudes is often too harsh for a clean picture anyway.
If you really want great photos for your travel feed, the best time to take them is during descent and approach.
As the plane lowers toward the destination, you can actually get a clear, detailed view of cities, coastlines, and landscapes — and during those moments, the shades are already usually required to be open for safety reasons anyway.
Ultimately, though, the status of the shade is up to the passenger
Unlike takeoff and landing, where keeping shades open is often a mandatory safety rule, mid-flight shade policy is more about etiquette.
As flight attendants, we couldn’t strictly enforce or mandate that passengers close them, as window-shade status isn’t regulated by the Federal Aviation Administration.
However, many of us made a point of strongly requesting and encouraging the shades to be shut for the comfort of the whole cabin.
Now, whenever I’m sitting in the window seat as a passenger, I practice what I preach. The shade stays wide open for takeoff, goes straight down as soon as we hit cruising altitude, and pops back up on our final approach.
Pulling that shade down mid-flight is a tiny move, but it makes a world of difference. It can help keep the cabin dark and calm, let your fellow passengers sleep, and prevent a full-blown glare dispute at 35,000 feet.
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