Travel Mags - March 06

IN-FLIGHT INSIGHTS

In-flight magazines are one of the last, lingering airline freebies. And they may make excellent "desperation reads" as you circle over O'Hare for the 34th lap. But are they worth stuffing in your carry-on for serious, off-plane perusal? This month, we took a look at magazines from seven airlines -- so fasten your seatbelt, here's what we discovered.

NORTHWEST AIRLINES:
NWA WorldTraveler

BEST FOR:
Denizens of Minneapolis, Detroit and Memphis who have a healthy respect for authorities.

DOES IT FLY?
If you live in one of Northwest's hub cities - or drop in often - you'll find plenty of local scoop on shopping, restaurants, museums and sports. Even the celebrity interviews have a local angle. "A Long Weekend" (the issue we examined touted Vegas' "Many Charms") tells the vacationally challenged exactly what to do - and where and when to do it: Breakfast! Shop! Lunch! Museum! Dinner! Show! Oh, please, can't we just sleep-off our hangover one morning? A promising story on Mexican-cuisine honcho Rick Bayless's favorite haunts south-of-the-border might have been helped by putting the writer on a plane instead of a phone (hint: you're an airline). Other articles on money, health and food were all penned by subject authorities (Motley Fool, Mayo Clinic, the Washington Post's restaurant critic on his DC dining faves).

DIVERSIONS:
Crossword puzzle, edited by Will Shorter.

EXCESS BAGGAGE:
34 pages of airline info, plus 16 pages of pure advertising at the back, adds up to a hefty 50 pages.


ALASKA AIRLINES:
Alaska Airlines

DOES IT FLY?
Like most airline magazines, you'll find short items up front about cities Alaska serves. But in this case, there's some nice reporting about the exhibits, events and hotspots. Plus, where else are you going to find a shopping tip about knitted goods from the Oomingmak Musk Ox Producers' Co-operative? Too bad the features are dry and draggy. A story on blogs seemed like old news, while the article anchoring a 17-page section on San Francisco read like a term paper - though we do like their concept of covering a destination each month, with separate stories on dining, lodging and activities (and they don't put us on a stupid schedule). While most pieces have adequate "if you go" info, we noticed a story with an exhaustive list of western ski resorts mysteriously left out Utah. You got it: Alaska doesn't fly there.

DIVERSIONS:
Crossword puzzle, provided by Penny Press.

EXCESS BAGGAGE:
13 pages of airline info, but the entire issue is heavy on ads.


SOUTHWEST AIRLINES:
Southwest Airlines Spirit

BEST FOR:
General-interest readers, with a U.S. focus.

DOES IT FLY?
It's a tall order: put together a magazine that appeals to anyone who might toddle down the jetway. Most of the time, Spirit succeeds, with more - and generally better - content than the competition. "Heck, this is a REAL magazine!" you say, flipping the pages. We dug stories on real-life pet detectives, environmentally friendly fashion and Seattle's garage winemakers. A piece rating TV chefs got a bit tangled up in pandering to diverse readers (standings were based on a combination of Miss America categories and the NFL quarterback ranking method - yikes!). Travel stories take a backseat here, but the lone feature on Philly gave us some unexpected city "bests" - with lively writing and a nifty, numbered map that told us exactly where to find them (but more prices would have been nice, guys).

DIVERSIONS:
A quasi-funny quiz; two crosswords by Merl Reagle; four sudoku puzzles, also by Reagle.

EXCESS BAGGAGE:
A lightweight 10 pages of airline info.


DELTA:
Sky

BEST FOR:
Worldly travelers who like plenty of cheek with their chic.

DOES IT FLY?
We can't help loving an airline mag that invokes the phrase "geek-lust" when describing techie toys and titles their collection of brief food articles "Pie in the Sky" (think about it). Then there's the SpaHound column on cruise ships with spas, wherein the author explores "the delicious possibilities of detox-retox." Sky is short on long features, but if you like quick, witty takes on assorted locales, along with the latest must-haves, must-sees, must-dos, must-reads and must-eats - this is your pick. The "Good Goes Around" department gets serious; in the copy we read they shined a light on the Nike Foundation's work with girls. We like that, too.

DIVERSIONS:
One crossword and two sudoku puzzles, supplied by Games Magazine.

EXCESS BAGGAGE:
16 pages of airline info.


US AIRWAYS:
US Airways Magazine

BEST FOR:
Trust-fund babies or hubbies (residents of hub cities Las Vegas, Phoenix, Philadelphia, Pittsburg and Charlotte, that is).

DOES IT FLY?
Hey, there! Could you be troubled to, um, tell us the prices at the restaurants and trips you cover? The tale of a dreamy sojourn at what we can only assume is a stratospherically costly resort on Turks & Caicos doesn't give us a hint at the pricing. Ditto an engaging piece from the mag's "itinerant gourmand," naming his top ten restaurant dishes for 2006. Really, we don't enjoy cagily chatting up a snooty reservationist to discover whether we can afford to sleep or dine. What's worse, a nature-cruise story begins to read like a gushing ad for Lindblad Expeditions (but of course, no prices - or any other info whatsoever that would let you duplicate the trip). On the plus-side, 20 pages of upfront items cover the gamut, from touring the Pentagon to Rock 'N' Roll Fantasy Camp ($8,499 - thank you!) to artists who build whimsical (and, we'd guess, expensive) bird houses; 20 additional pages focus on doings in hub cities.

DIVERSIONS:
Two crosswords and a word game, by Emily Cox and Henry Rathvon.

EXCESS BAGGAGE:
18 pages of airline info.


AMERICAN AIRLINES:
American Way

BEST FOR:
Busy, affluent intellectuals - who like to chow down an order of hash-browns now and again.

DOES IT FLY?
OK, so the story about sweat - that's right, sweat - might not be so fascinating if you're reading it while wedged in a coach seat next to that pudgy, perspiring salesman from Paducah. But we were intrigued by this bizarre topic. We were less amused by a whiney writer's quest for good Tex-Mex on the East Coast. Zzzzzz. A Seattle restaurant roundup revived us as it romped through seafood stand-outs, chili joints, coffee purveyors, soul food finds and the ultra-buzzy deli run by Mario Batali's dad. A delectable read, but nary a price. However, you've got to like a mag that not only interviews Juliane Moore, but also makes her give up her fave spots in hometown Manhattan (some addresses might be nice, though, folks). We do wish we had enough money to hire a "daily money manager," as another article recommends, or enough time to attend the time management course profiled in the "Taking Control" department. We'll have to settle for one of the recommendations in the nice, plump book section.

DIVERSIONS:
Mensa quiz, by Dr. Abbie F. Salny; crossword, by Roslyn Stark.

EXCESS BAGGAGE:
17 pages of airline info.


UNITED AIRLINES:
Hemispheres

BEST FOR:
Armchair travelers - or readers who have "people" to handle the pesky details.

DOES IT FLY?
Oh, "Three Perfect Days" department, you can make even a trip to a Caribbean island seem hectic and stressful with your marathon itineraries! It's enough to make us guzzle down that bottle of guavaberry liqueur you directed us to pick up. We do like the accompanying map with color-keyed, numbered destinations and monthly temperature chart, though. But what, perchance, might this adventure cost? In general, Hemispheres is more about departments than features, with sections on golf, booze and events. There's a resident car columnist (but no resident plane columnist) who kindly shares the sticker prices of his subjects - yet alas, a story on "opulent" winter lodges left us out in the cold, without so much as a phone number. Pardon us for getting all righteous, but did you ever think we might be interested in actually doing the things you write about?

DIVERSIONS:
Four sudoku puzzles by Wayne Gould; crossword by John M. Samson; horoscopes by Kathryn L. Silverton (ours said, "The road is calling your name" - how did she know??).

EXCESS BAGGAGE:
A fluffy 33 pages of airline info, but made a rotten pillow on our last red-eye flight.