It’s the end of an era, ModernRetail is reporting that United is discontinuing its inflight magazine, Hemispheres. This marks the end of the inflight magazine for the Big 3 U.S. carriers as American and Delta previously eliminated their own inflight magazines.
Delta was the first of the big three to eliminate its inflight magazine in the early days of the Covid-19 pandemic. The airline paused publication in March 2020 and laid off the magazine’s staff shortly thereafter.
American was the second airline to cease publication of its inflight magazine, American Way. The magazine “retired” after 55 years in circulation back in June of 2021.
United’s Hemispheres kept going much longer than I expected during the pandemic and part of me thought the airline planned to keep it around for good. However, it seems that its time is finally coming to an end.
Maybe it’s because it was the only magazine still in circulation and therefore is still fresh in my memory but, I found Hemispheres to be extremely well written. I especially enjoyed its “Three Perfect Days” segment that focused on small towns and cities around the world that were served by the Star Alliance carrier.
During 2022 I spent almost every week on a United plane flying between my home in Texas and Denver. These flights were almost exclusively operated by older Airbus A319 and A320 aircraft (and still are, though retrofits are coming) without IFE.
Hemispheres was a great way to kickoff the work week, or unwind after a long week away, and I enjoyed the simplicity of being fully disconnected for a few hours each week. It also took me back to my childhood, in an era before IFE screens where I would read every magazine cover to cover and, in most cases bring them home with me.
I’ve got a flight to Denver later this month, though on a pair of 737s, and I’m hoping to get one final read of an inflight magazine on a U.S. carrier. Save me a copy United!
If you’re not flying with the airline anytime soon but want to flip through the magazine virtually, the Hemispheres website is still up and running. It is likely that they keep a digital version around in some form with only the paper copies being removed (at least I hope). This month’s “Three Perfect Days” segment is Paris, which seems appropriate.
Summary
United is discontinuing its inflight magazine in the near future. It remains to be seen what sort of digital publications the airline will provide going forward. I’m sad to see it go as the kid in me still remembers reading them cover to cover, paying special attention to the route maps and fleet descriptions in the back of each.
Too bad, I always looked thru it and when bored during a flight, I’d stare at the route maps to think about where I’d want to go next. I just did EWR-LAS-EWR and I saw a good amount of people flipping thru the magazine.
Always fun looking at the route map and seeing all of the unique destinations, especially on the parter global map.