Had a nice talk with Jesse Leavenworth, a reporter from the The Hartford Courant, a while back about my favorite topic – airports with great amenities – and see that his article has hit the paper.

I chatted with Leavenworth about some of my favorite airports to spend time in – including San Francisco International Airport - SFO (great art and food choices in the Int’l Terminal), Oregon’s Portland International Airport- PDX (great shops and no sales tax), and Amsterdam’s Schiphol Airport (a casino, lots of art, on-site museum, and loads more).

Leavenworth was especially pleased to hear me praise Schiphol, because his paper’s hometown airport, Hartford’s Bradley International Airport (BDL) has a direct flight to Amsterdam. Oops.. not any more.. Northwest Airlines just announced that it is dropping that route as of October 2.

Bradley still has loads to offer, including a free parking coupon for folks who sign up for the airport’s frequent-parker program and free Wi-Fi for all.

Last time I went through BDL, they were still displaying something truly unusual: three patch-sized embroidered scenes created by Raymond Materson to honor the 1994 Special Olympics. Materson was in prison when he made the patches and unraveled his socks to get the colored thread to use in his artwork. Once out of prison, Materson kept sewing. His work is now highly prized and displayed in museums and in art galleries.

Materson is currently in his first major overseas exhibit at the Compton Verney Gallery in Warwkickshire, England. To celebrate, he made this portrait of Queen Victoria and was kind enough to let me share it with you.

Courtesy and copyright: Ray Materson

In her Forbes article titled “America’s Most Time Draining Airports,” Rebecca Ruiz reports on the Forbes analysis of 2007 Bureau of Transportation statistics for 100 of the largest airports. (The full table of delay statistics is here.)

No surprise – Chicago’s O’Hare International Airport (ORD) tops the list as “the nation’s worst airport for delays.” In defense, airport officials tick off a list of things passengers can do while they’re stuck at O’Hare: get a massage, shop at the Field Museum kiosk, or eat at the Wolfgang Puck restaurant.

That might keep you amused for about an hour.  In the Top 20 list of airports with the worst delays there are few that offer far more entertainment: San Francisco International Airport (SFO) and DenverInternational Airport (DEN) have lots of artwork to see and at Minneapolis- St. Paul International Airport (MSP) there’s oodles of great shopping.

(World Civilization,” by Viola Frey, is located in Boarding Area A. Courtesy SFO airport)

Starting today, May 5th, non-exempt travelers flying on Continental, Delta, Northwest, United and US Airways must pay $25 to check a second piece of luggage. American Airlines will begin charging that same $25 on May 12. Air Tran jumps in with a $10 second-bag fee on May 15^th. And, just in time for summer travel, passengers on Alaska Airlines and Horizon Air will start paying that $25 fee on July 1^st.

One bit of good news: As of today, United Airlines will waive that second bag fee for passengers who pay to check luggage at remote baggage check-in sites such as hotel lobbies, convention centers and cruise ships.

No word yet on how long the airline will be doing that, but so far it is the only airline to do so.

San Francisco International Airport (SFO) is, so far, the only U.S. airport with an accredited museum. There are twenty galleries scattered throughout the terminals displaying always cool, ever-changing exhibitions of art, history, science.

So you may find yourself wishing for a longer layover or a flight delay here.

I usually do.

Right now, for example, pre-security in the International Terminal, there’s a new exhibit of more than fifty pieces of the nineteenth-century English and French glazed ceramic known as “majolica.”

This wine cistern celebrating Bacchus is my favorite:

Bacchus vase 1851–1897/ Courtesy of Nicolaus Boston

Not in the mood for majolica? Elsewhere in the airport, there are exhibit cases filled with flight attendant uniform caps, aviation toys, minerals and gemstones, and other fun stuff.

And there’s no admission charge.

To help you plan your SFO layover, here’s a link to the San Francisco Airport Art Museum’s list of what’s where – and when.