You miss serious views like these by sleeping on a flight

The Flight Detective
Views of mountains in China when flying

What continues to surprise me when flying is the amount of people who decide to sleep on a day flight. All it means is a lot of window blinds closed and completely missing the gorgeous views.

Recently I had the pleasure of flying from Hong Kong to London on a 9:45am departure. Not long after take-off, almost the entire cabin was in darkness as people watched movies and slept. Me? I noticed something out the window.

Views of China Passing By

Periodically peeking out the windows, I spotted that the cloud cover was breaking and mountains were coming into view. I was in for a pleasant surprise really.

The further we flew along our route, the more interesting it became. These mountains were pretty high, because they didn’t seem to be too far below us at all. Soon I could spy signs of human habitation in the valleys, where you could see farmland neatly laid out. Wondering where I was, I turned to the inflight map to try to pin that down. Turns out we were somewhere over China, flying pretty much north with mountain ranges to our left. For some reason Jiangtang is in my head but I honestly couldn’t tell you. Getting a drink from the galley, I mentioned it to the cabin crew who had a look out the door window. They were pleasantly surprised at the views themselves, judging by the look on their faces! Eventually we passed by and headed back into a cloudy area. At this point, I stopped being “that guy” and closed my window blinds as well and settled in to a movie.

Overall Thoughts

Whatever happened to the wonder and awe at the miracle of flight? The views that people are missing by going straight to sleep during the day or having their heads in their entertainment system are many.

Some of my favourite memories of flying are the views you get along the way. Flying at midnight somewhere over the Persian Gulf and seeing the light of the oil refineries for example. It’s all so very interesting!

Should passengers on flights keep the blinds closed on day flights? What memorable views have you seen when flying? Thank you for reading and if you have any comments or questions, please leave them below.

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Nick

If you want to sleep, buy an eye mask. Others shouldn’t have to live in darkness during a daytime flight.

Family Flys Free

Preach!!

huey judy

SO TRUE! I don’t sleep on planes at any time and I’m tired of FAs insisting that I shut my window shade. I don’t think so. Bring some eye shades if you want to sleep, leave the rest of us alone.

Jon

Which inevitably raises the issue of control of the window blinds. I specifically choose the window seat precisely so that I can get the fantastic views while the guy on the aisle demands that I close the blind so he can watch his movie.

Glenn

10 years ago I flew the polar route on a SFO-DXB flight once, somewhere over the Yukon the pilot mentioned on the PA about a particularly strong Aurora Borealis. To date that was the only time I saw it.

Simon Wilson

And this is why I get annoyed when the cabin crew decide to close the window blinds on daylight flights. There is so much to see I don’t want to sit in darkness for 8 hours thank you very much, I want to look outside.

Family Flys Free

I think the big issue here is the “override” that I believe the FAs have on the 787 where they can dim them all.

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