This works fine:
...
crit.setFetchMode("phones", FetchMode.JOIN);
...
// sometime later - session is now closed
// and contact has been populated from the query
contact.getPhones();

This does not work:
...
crit.setFetchMode("phones", FetchMode.JOIN);
crit.createAlias("phones", "ps");
crit.addOrder(Order.asc("ps.areaCode"));
...
// sometime later - session is now closed
// and contact has been populated from the query.
// Throws LazyInitializationException
contact.getPhones();

I also tried this:
...
crit.setFetchMode("phones", FetchMode.JOIN);
Criteria crit2 = crit.createCriteria("phones");
crit2.addOrder(Order.asc("areaCode"));
...
// sometime later - session is now closed
// and contact has been populated from the query.
// also throws LazyInitializationException
contact.getPhones();

Any idea how to get around this?
Thanks,
Ben

This is a known issue. Check out JIRA HHH-997 (Gavin says "it's a known issue", marks it as a duplicate... but doesn't list the duplicate?) and HHH-1162. HHH-1162 is more useful: essentially, the createAlias part forces an inner join, overriding the setFetchMode's outer join preference.

To resolve in the short term, remove the alias and work with the long notation. Watch HHH-1162 to see when it gets resolved.