Sweet dreams on 787- You may not be able to see out,- and you may have no choice.

Initial passenger reports on the entry into service of ANA's short and long haul 787s are, like the aircraft itself, slowly beginning to appear. Conspicuously absent after all the original manufacturer's hype is the word "Wow!".This may be partly due to ANA's own conservative approach to cabin furnishing, particularly on the short haul version, but is probably mainly down to the realisation that however revolutionary the construction and materials, the tube in which people are sitting is pretty much a new form of the fairly unglamorous and not particularly large 767.

Most worrying though is confirmation that as a passenger, especially one sitting by the much vaunted much larger window seats, you may not have control over whether or not you can actually see out. The cabin crew, in an electronic victory in the war that has often broken out between them and scenery watchers especially on long haul daylight flights over spectacular scenery (think Himalayas, Alaska and others) over "instructions" to pull down window blinds "so that people can see their videos/laptops/get some sleep, on the 787 have total control over whether the windows are opaque or see-through. The scenery watchers and the claustraphobic had assumed that they would have individual override for their particular window. This appears not to be so. That is worrying. Some legacy carriers' crews in particular have been keen to minimise demands for in flight service by quite forcibly demanding that blinds be down. Those strong willed customers who really like to look out and feel the choice should be theirs anyway have resolutely fought back with the short word "No". It now looks as if it may be game over for them and they will just have to avoid 787s. Please tell us that isn't so and they just haven't found the right button yet.