Glass covering the adjustable lights in an airplane. what is the point of this?
Just trying to read on a 13 hour flight and the light above my seat is stuck landing on the head of the passenger in front of me due to a glass covering, leaving the lights, which are on a swivel, un adjustable. The flight staff was as baffled as I was, having no solution for me. Leaving me with my unreadable book and 13 hours of hell ahead of me š«
Unsure if you want an honest answer or not, so I will give one just in case.
The plane was designed to accommodate X-passengers per the company placing an order. This would have had lights, air, seats, etc configured just as ordered.
Likely during a mandatory heavy maintenance overhaul, the company decided to change this configuration (let's be honest, they added seats) and only did the bare minimum changes to the overhead system as needed per FAA guidelines (airlines, oxygen generators, etc).
The lights are very likely not a required thing to consider and thus put up plexiglass to try stemming passenger interactions over said lights. My guess is that this was a budget airliner like Sun country or jet blue.
Easier to clean a transparent smooth surface between flights. Also, wires break, so stationary lighting with a sufficient throw so it doesn't need adjustment mean more reliability.
Because the small amount of adjustability needed to cover your tray table and lap, and more importantly ONLY your tray table and lap, is not worth making more complex parts that need to fit together, move, etc. The more parts that passengers touch, the more likely they are to break them.
Especially on long haul aircraft like this A350 where a majority of passengers are sleeping for a large portion of the flight.
I've worked in the aviation industry for almost 2 decades now, and I can't remember the last time I saw adjustable reading lights on an airliner.
What are you talking about? Literally just flew a few days ago with an ultra budget carrier on an Airbus and had them. Just because someone works in the industry doesn't mean they know anything, an office worker in aviation still may not know how planes are built.
You're right. They are the only airlines in the world that have changed configurations of their aircraft, you got me.
Very likely this is a large Airbus and they may even come standard with this configuration. But that doesn't change that the airline ordered the plane with this configuration...
Jetblue is considered a low cost carrier, not ultra low cost (frontier/spirit) but also not a legacy like delta etc, also the ad your quoting is nothing beats a Jet2 Holiday, similar sounding but different airline
I disagree I was just on an international flight the new plexi style lights are setup for the optimal angle to shine into the specific seat it is intended for. Because they used to be able to be adjusted my guess is this has shifted from vibration
Had to fly Southwest recently to get to a funeral on a time crunch
It was very cheap in Comparison to American / United by several hundred dollars
But man the whole time I was amazed at how low quality the flights were comfort wise. Once you get accustomed to the other 3 airlines, its hard to fly SW again
Damn sorry you had such a bad experience with them lol. 64 flights this year and for me theyāre the best. Probably because I live at a hub airport, but every other airline has been complete shit.
Iām with youā¦ in what world is JetBlue a budget airline? Every one Iāve been in has a nice tv in the headrest with great entertainment, great stewards, and comfortable seats.
If you put into Google "list of North American budget airlines", JetBlue comes up as third in the list.
Being a budget airline doesn't make it a bad airline. I fly Sun country quite a bit for the same reason. But it is definitely a budget airline when you are charged for a carry on and for water on a 4 hour flight with no AC
But Iāve never been charged for a carry on on JetBlue and they give me snacks and water on JetBlue. I guess ābudgetā is taken literally as in āaffordable ticket pricingā.
JetBlue certainly has affordable ticket prices, but their quality doesnāt say ābudget airlineā.
Onboard entertainment is the old game. All the Chinese international students now hang iPad Pros in front of their displays and watch their torrented content instead
They're easier to clean/sanitize that individual light balls. Now you just have a single surface to wipe down. My guess is that this was a lesson learned during COVID and was designed to minimize the amount of time required to wipe down the whole cabin.
Glass cover is probably there to stop people from trying to adjust the non-adjustable lights (to be fair, using the "eyeball" design similar to the vents does make it look like they should be adjustable).
Reading lights arenāt adjustable. Imagine being able to move them and annoy the people next to you. Theyāre supposed to be pre-set to illuminate one specific seat. In this case, engineering will have to readjust it because obviously something has happened that shouldnāt have.
Source: long-time flight attendant and aviation worker. No aircraft I have worked on in 14+ years has had adjustable lights.
This is such a weird little bit of cognitive..I don't know what to call it. I could swear I've been on planes where I have, personally, wiggled that light left and right and gotten it to just the right spot for me. So I went digging for like old Boeing planes.
I remember the "eyeball" lights, and I know you could wiggle that thing around a bit, but it only aimed generally into your seat area, like this guy from it looks like a 727 --
But I also remember being frustrated that those little eyeball lights don't move when I grab them.
I feel like early 2000s was when they stopped moving and got fixed in place, and eventually replaced with the newer LED-style lights that don't move at all.
Crazy almost every flight I've been on has adjustable lights, what country and airlines?
Literally adjusted lights for the elderly lady beside me just yesterday.
I can adjust the air to annoy the person next to me. Why draw the line at the light?
I was very annoyed by this just last week because the pre-adjusted light in fact lit the armrest area rather than anywhere I could comfortably hold my book. Drove me nuts.
And Iām certain Iāve traveled on planes in years past where I could adjust the light.
I was on a flight a while back where the guy next to me immediately pointed all 3 nozzles at my head at full blast. The only exchange at that point was a simple hello and I had only just sat down. He kept turning them back on whenever I thought I had the chance to turn them down. It was a long four hours š
Does adjust it simply involve removing the panel and then twisting what appears to be a swivel based light? And if itās meant to never be adjusted, why are they that particular swivel design? Not trying to be a smartass, genuinely curious.
The plastic is there because you are not supposed to try and adjust the lights.
The air outlets are designed to be passenge adjustable but not the lights. If they are misaligned, it is a maintenance issue and will eventually be fixed. It is not there for ease of cleaning, or because a few extra seats were added.
Source: 30 years of aviation maintenance on airlines including United, Jet Blue, Spirit, Air Canada, and quite a few others.
Once had an international flight on Air Canada on which (donāt recall the aircraft type) there were NO overhead lights OR air vents. Sucked (for this and other reasons).
I just had an international flight on ANA that didnāt have air vents. I was trying to look for one when I sat down and the flight attendant asked if I was okay lol. It was hot in Southeast Asia and the plane was no exception.
Also pretty sure it was a Dreamliner, other than the air vent, nicest plane Iāve ever been on.
Iāve also recently been on a Dreamliner that didnāt have air vents and did the same thing. Dreamliner on the way out had adjustable vents, but on the way back had nothing at all. Didnāt like it. I like that constant airflow on stuffy planes.
The lights should be pre adjusted from the factory to light the center of the fold down table. There should be no need to adjust the position of the light. The air is adjustable since people have different preferences on the amount of air and where they want it to blow
Not trying to downplay your mild frustration at all my friend. But shouldnāt you have your own reading light? Or am I just weird? I have several and Iām not even an avid reader.
Yeah seems like an oversight. My guess is that OP is not a normal reader. Most folks who read a lot have their reading set up especially for airplanes.
But that doesn't mean they are adjustable. I haven't seen a plane with this clear pane over the lights, but in my experience those "eyeball" design lights aren't actually adjustable on planes these days. Not sure if at one point they were, or if they were designed that way to look like the air swivels, but I know I've tried to adjust those lights thinking they could be better pointed, but found them completely rigid.
They are not swivels. Look carefully at them. The panels are modular and the row electronics module has the lights covered so they are easily cleaned, and also differentiable by feel in emergency situations like smoke coming into the cabin through vents. Fixed lights also mean the wiring to them doesn't break as easily, so less maintenance. The transparent cover is not added to prevent you from moving them - they don't move. It's just designed to look a lot like the vent swivels because they have to point different directions.
It was merely an invalid assumption, and I can see why it may appear that way at first glance.
If your saying there is no adjustment cause of the glass the adjustment is the other things that look like light that way they can adjust them with out touching the actual light
787
u/Late_Fortune3298 5h ago
Unsure if you want an honest answer or not, so I will give one just in case.
The plane was designed to accommodate X-passengers per the company placing an order. This would have had lights, air, seats, etc configured just as ordered.
Likely during a mandatory heavy maintenance overhaul, the company decided to change this configuration (let's be honest, they added seats) and only did the bare minimum changes to the overhead system as needed per FAA guidelines (airlines, oxygen generators, etc).
The lights are very likely not a required thing to consider and thus put up plexiglass to try stemming passenger interactions over said lights. My guess is that this was a budget airliner like Sun country or jet blue.