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JOHNNY JET'S Q & A
With Travel + Leisure's Mark Orwoll

PROFILE

Mark Orwoll, managing editor of Travel + Leisure magazine, writes a daily travel Q&A at www.travelandleisure.com and is the author of "Teach Yourself e-Travel Today" (Macmillan), which for some reason, he says, has sold more copies in the Hebrew and Greek translations than in the English original. On assignment for T+L, he has written stories from Mexico's Mayan Riviera, London, Bosnia and Croatia, the Bahamas, India, the Rocky Mountains, and numerous other destinations in the U.S. and abroad. He also appears frequently on television as a travel expert; he has broadcast from Mykonos, Greece, for the Today Show's "Where in the World is Matt Lauer" series, choked (literally) while wolfing down vinegar-laced french fries on the TV Food Network, and discussed aviation issues on PBS's NewsHour with Jim Lehrer. He's just back from a family vacation in Ireland, where he finally got a chance to kiss the Blarney Stone, which his wife says was "awfully redundant."

MARK'S ANSWERS

HOW OFTEN DO YOU FLY?
I fly 8-10 times a year.
IN A YEAR HOW MANY MILES/POINTS DO YOU EARN?
Oh, please don't ask! I'm a horrible bookkeeper when it comes to FF miles.
WHAT CLASS OF SERVICE DO YOU MOSTLY FLY IN?
Coach. Business class fares are over-priced, and I don't use my travel-editor status to ask for upgrades.
FAVORITE AIRLINE?
Favorite defunct airline: PSA, the California-based outfit that Austin Powers would have loved (flight attendants in the 1960s wore hot-pink minidresses and high-heel go-go boots). Favorite active airline: Singapore Airlines, whose praises have been sung by enough people that they need no embellishment from me.
FAVORITE AIRCRAFT?
Any one that has landed safely.
FAVORITE HOTEL?
Nilaya Hermitage in Goa, India. Sentimental favorite: the Algonquin in New York, where my wife and I spent our wedding night.
FAVORITE HOTEL AMENITY?
Good reading light by the bed, comfortable lounge chair, and notepads (I collect hotel notepads).
FAVORITE AIRPORT?
Westchester County Airport--it's small and cramped, most of its flights don't go where I want to go, and the airfares seem to be more expensive there than elsewhere, but it's the closest airport to my house.
FAVORITE AIRPORT TO PASS TIME IN?
I'd rather pass a kidney stone than pass time in an airport. If you made me choose between the bastinado and an airport terminal, I'd have to toss a coin. I usually end up in the bar, ingesting second-hand smoke and grousing about the high price of air-terminal beer.
FAVORITE CITY?
Four-way tie: San Diego, where I went to college; San Francisco, where I went to be a hippie; London, where you can still turn a strange corner and find yourself in a scene from Dickens; and New York, the most exciting city on the planet.
FAVORITE RESTAURANT?
Tie: El Toro Taqueria, at 598 Valencia Street, in San Francisco's Mission District, where you'll get the best overstuffed burritos in the world. Also: Langan's, at 150 West 47th St., in New York City, where I go when I feel like Irish comfort food and a well-pulled pint of Guinness.
AISLE OR WINDOW?
Aisle, always and forever. I get a bit cramped if I'm not on the aisle. But watch out for the serving carts!
ETICKET OR PAPER?
Paper! Even if you have to pay an extra few bucks to get one. When e-ticket reservations are universally accessible by all airlines, so you can switch airlines in an emergency, I will be more inclined to use e-tickets.
TRAVEL AGENT OR ONLINE?
I enjoy booking my own trips, so I usually go online to do it. But I appreciate a knowledgeable and creative travel agent. When in doubt, go with a good travel agent.
FAVORITE TRAVEL WEBSITE?
Why, http://www.travelandleisure.com/askMark/index.cfm, of course! But after that my favorites get a little arcane. I mostly use travel tools: How Far Is It ( http://www.indo.com/distance/ ); travel warnings (from the U.S. State Department as well as those issued by the British Foreign & Commonwealth Office, Australia Consular Services, and Canada's Department of Foreign Affairs and International Trade); AT&T's World Traveler Country and City Codes ( http://traveler.network.att.com/traveler/codes/index.jsp ); X-Rates ( http://www.x-rates.com/calculator.html ), the fastest currency converter in the known world; and other such nuts-and-bolts websites.
FAVORITE TRAVEL COMPANION?
My wife will always be No. 1. On assignment to do a story, T+L photo editor David Cicconi, a resourceful and easy-going road buddy.
BEST TRAVEL TIP:
Travel light- so you can get out of town fast.