Clear Enrollment & Delta Return Trip EWR-ATL-TRI February 10

I had posted on FFOCUS that I received a free year of Clear (http://www.flyclear.com.) I had completed online enrollment and I completed in-person enrollment today at EWR. The employees were extremely nice (they must work on commission!) But what an invasive experience: they took a digital photo, made digital fingerprints then verified the prints, and scanned my irises then verified the scans. The unfortunate thing is that eventually this will probably become the norm for all travelers. At any rate, we will see if this moves me quicker through security at airports where there are no elite lines (HPN and MCO are my upcoming destinations that have Clear.) They are trying to get Clear at EWR terminal C, the Continental terminal.

DL 1299 EWR-ATL, MD-88, 14 F seats, seat 4B, no IFE:
Interesting start to the flight–the pilot came out and introduced himself and the first officer and told us about their Navy and DL flight experience, 30 years combined service!

We departed the gate on time at 11:20 am and took off at 11:30 am. F was full and coach was about half-full. The flight time was 2 hours 5 minutes due to a strong head wind. We had pre-departure drink service and in-flight drink and snack basket service. The snack basket had crackers, peanuts, Sun Chips, granola bars, and Biscoffs. The FA, Patti Z as per her Delta wings name tag, was friendly, funny, and worked the entire trip. She refilled my red wine (in a small wine glass) twice (and offered me a third, which would have made 4 glasses–I said no.)

We still arrived 10 minutes early. And our landing was especially smooth!

Why this flight was better than a comparable US flight:
–An especially open and friendly crew who made sure we knew them and worked the entire time. US needs name tags like DL FAs have.
–Clean cabin and lav, clean tray table
–Great legroom in F, even in row 4

There is not a Crown Room Club in D, just a small CO Presidents Club, so I went there to wait for my next departure. They had Fritos corn chips, Lays regular chips, and cheese and crackers. There were signs on the tables asking people to refrain from putting their feet on the tables! LOL! The chairs were beige leather and appeared to be in good condition. The tables were wood with marble tops. The floor was black and beige tile. There was a lady cleaning the area as I was there. And there was not a Vegas gaming machine! But there was free booze (I had water!)

One more note about the Presidents Club: they are remodeling/expanding–thank goodness because they had one, unisex bathroom with one toilet and the lock was broken, so one had to knock before entering! I felt like I was in a European bar, except the toilet was not a hole-in-the-floor, stand-up version! LMAO!

DL 4196 ATL-TRI, CRJ, seat 8B exit aisle, scheduled from 2:58-3:57 pm from D33. Scheduled flight time was 38 minutes:
The flight boarded about 15 minutes late. The GA called all zones to board at once, but did honor the Breezeway lane and scanned our BPs first ahead of the general boarding lane, which sort of caught me off-guard in a good way!

Again I had no seatmate! We left the gate at 3:02 pm and were 5th for departure, departing at 3:16 pm. In-flight service was choice of a snack from the basket and Dasani. The Biscoffs came in a red, Delta co-branded package and the cookies had the Delta logo on them! We landed at 3:55 pm, 2 minutes early.

By the way, the roundtrip cost was $350.60, non-refundable coach, and I was upgraded on the two mainline flights at my Gold Medallion status window.