Virgin Atlantic: Hot Air
Rating: 4/5
The front cover photograph looking up Angelina Jolie's nostrils gets you interested, but the words are confusingly run together: 'Audley Harrison Planet Of The Apes Daft Punk The Rebirth of Berlin Subbuteo Streakers'. God knows how a non-English speaker would cope, and the inside is terrifyingly trendy.
It's big on architecture and design, with Berlin and Guggenheim making appearances, and it feels like a real magazine, rather than a freebie. It's beautifully laid out, advertisements blend in rather than clash, and it is printed on rich matt paper.
This is one of the few airline mags you'd want to take home. There are lots of snippets about hotels, or things to see, which are worth cutting out. Only criticism is it's a bit top heavy on boys' toys - golf, football, Lego, cars, tigers, trainers and travel gear (but that's not surprising really as it's edited by former Arena editor Ekow Eshun).
We'd have liked a bit more on handbags, but maybe we'll have to wait till the next issue for that.