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Comment by JustSomeNobody | Hacker News Reader

Anecdotally, I hate flying if I can't see out the window. Like, really really hate it.

My experience as a frequent flyer is that First Class is the most likely cabin to have all windows closed for 100% of the flight. It's baffling to me, people will even keep closed the window facing New York on the approach to LaGuardia which should be a crime. Also Boston, Salt Lake, Hawaii, and really pretty much all places except like Dallas and Cleveland types totally perplex me when the window is closed and I'm not directly next to it. I want to witness this glorious rock from above!

I see this more and more everywhere across the plane these days.

I remember flying as a kid/teen and nearly every window was open during takeoff and touchdown. Last 3 to 5 years and almost every flight has had less than 10% of the windows open. I don't get it - I also want to see it. We're fucking flying, for god's sake.

They didn't have the magical rectangle when you were a kid. Might miss some celebrity vacation pics if you take your eyes off it.

I thought I was the only one who experienced this.

I race cars as a hobby but I suffer from motion sickness whenever I’m not driving or whenever I can’t see out. People will choose the window seat and keep it closed the whole time. WHY?! At least open it when we’re on the ground being shaken back and forth while backing out and taxiing so my mind doesn’t lose point of reference.

They used to ask you to open the window shades for takeoff and landing, idea was to actually be aware of what is going on outside incase an evac is necessary.

Now they ask everyone only to close the window shades after landing to better control the temp, the APU a/c is often no match for direct sunlight. Then most people just leave them closed.

I've heard the opposite. Keeping the shades open is so that the rescue crews can look into the plane in case of a crash/accident.

At least in Europe having the blinds open (and the lights dimmed at night) is an airline requirement.

https://news.schiphol.com/why-do-the-window-blinds-have-to-b...

And once upon a now long time ago, when I was a boy, the food was actually hot, quite tasty, prepared by actual chefs, and served on real china dishes with metal silverware. (Even in Coach - it was many years before I travelled enough to get a few upgrades to First Class!)

Modernity and MBAs have stolen the elegance and service that flying (or the train, to an earlier generation) used to have when America was great. I remember marveling that as expensive as such flying was, it was really not a bad deal to get a great meal served by pretty young women looking over such amazing vistas, with fast, smooth transportation thrown into the bargain!

This always baffles me flying out west. I mean Nebraska, Kansas, Iowa - i get it - close those windows we can sleep. But the Rockies, Mt St Helens, Mt Hood, Mt Rainier...and then you hit the mfin GRAND CANYON and you still wont open up your window?!?! people that don't open their window over the grand canyon need to be put on a list for middle seat only.

I am regularly on flights which go over the Grand Canyon. On that flight specifically, I keep my window shade open for the sake of the folks in the middle and aisle seats.

Of course, they are probably thinking "wish that view didn't have that sleeping dude in the foreground".

You're still a hero. Thank you for sleeping so I don't have to feel awkward making you think I am looking at you while looking out the window.

yup it's insanely annoying

i flew business to hong kong a few years ago and i couldn't put the shades up AT ALL because of people sleeping most of the flight, which sucks because from the crack I was able to see through, we passed through some incredible shit

Back before the in-seat video days, I was flying back from Europe to the US. We were just approaching the coast of Greenland. I could see icebergs in the water, and glaciers coming down to the ocean. Then they asked us to close all the windows so people could see the in-flight movie. And I'm like, when am I going to see Greenland again? I can rent the movie.

When I've flown first class frequently it was during times of my life when I was flying a lot and so had miles to burn on upgrades and such.

After the first few times - especially if you're flying the same routes over and over - I got used to it, for better or worse.

I flew relentlessly for work for years and the view out the window of the plane was the one thing that never got boring or I took for granted. Actually, add lie flat seats. Everything else definitely became part of the wallpaper.

It... might have something to do with a psychedelic experience I had on a plane once...

I get this, but also peering out a narrow plane window at a view which is often at least substantially blocked by wing is not always fun.

I would like airlines to put a 360 degree camera system mounted to the exterior, and pipe through the feed either to a channel in an in-seat screen, or make it available to passengers wearing a VR headset. Imagine one of these much wider planes where many more seats are middle seats -- but where you can sit down, put on a VR headset, and get a clear image of the view in every direction. If fewer people will have a window in these future planes, and most awake people are looking at an entertainment system anyways, I would like the airline to pipe through a feed from a 360 degree camera mounted on the outside. Imagine sitting in a middle seat, comforted by the fact that you can put on a VR headset and

I'm claustrophobic. Having the window there and next to me is essential for me. Mentally, i need to feel like there's an exit i can jump through if things go awry. Of course, thats not realistic. But some artificial screen doesnt give me the same comfort. Looking out and see the outside for myself is the only thing that does it

People seem to prefer either the window or the aisle. You go and select seats, and it's always the middle seats that are left over. So it might be an issue if these new plane designs have lots of middle seats. They might have to give more space to the folks in those seats to get them filled.

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