>In other contexts it is archaic - or maybe just a journalistic fad like the use of "an" in front of words like "hotel", which you seem to see in newspapers and nowhere else - another example of archaism.>
Not so.
The "an" in front of a letter whose first letter is an aspirate such as "h" in hotel is still perfectly correct in modern usage. In fact, in this instance, it is not wrong not to pronounce the "h" and say the words almost as one - "an otel".
"A" hotel is just ugly when said, so I feel that for clarity it should be written "an hotel"
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