mauld

Last Sat (7/3) I took my first flight (since Jan), EWR -TPA. Flight left at 8am and since I wasn’t sure about new procedures, I arrived early. At the airport around 6:30am, absolutely no one in line at Security, with only small carryon, I breezed through. I had heard the United Club at 75 should be open, but upon arrival at the staircase there was a CLOSED sign saying “Open 7am-7pm for Passenger Assistance Only, No Food or Beverages available”. Oh well! Terminal C was pretty much a ghost town with the few people around wearing masks & keeping apart. Walked over to my gate 120, where seats were marked to keep social distance. When boarding began, it was done from the rear and appeared orderly, and without incident .Everyone received a packaged wipe upon boarding. I had been upgraded to F and found only 4 other passengers up front. Coach appeared about 30 % full so no issues. There was a predeparture beverage offered and I saw alcohol, and coffee/ tea served. Midway through, the FA’s came by with snack boxes ( took the tapas), water came in a small bottle, I heard that coach was given water and plastic snack pack. During the flight, beverages including wine & alcohol were continuously offered. Everyone kept masks on throughout and at TPA we deplaned from the front without incident.

Returning the next morning was a totally different experience. My flight left at 9:30am, and there were a few people ahead of me in line and with no sign for Precheck, there was a bit of a wait. At the gate, I could see the flight was going to be much fuller. Again, I had been upgraded to F, but could see every F seat was taken. About 30 minutes prior to boarding, the gate agent picked up a piece of paper and read aloud ( but .not through a mic) to those seated near the gate, the governments advice on self quarantine upon arrival in NJ. But it was not heard by anyone who was not standing or seated nearby. There was very little social distancing during boarding and once on board apparently middle seats were being used, much to the dismay of coach passengers, who were loudly complaining and wanted to use the E+ seats. The FA made an announcement that if they wanted to move to E+, they could pay $90 , or they could get on a later flight with possibly more room. Also some families had been separated when they made the reservation and middle seats (at that time) were X’d out, and now wanted to sit together,
Again, we did get a predeparture beverage, but snacks for both coach & first were the same prewrapped plastic bag with pretzels & wipes. My water, this time came in a blue plastic cup with ice, a small 8 oz bottle was included in the snack bag. Also F did get a basket passed with chips & nuts as well. At no time during the flight or at arrival in NJ Was the quarantine message read again. We arrived early and deplaned as usual. There was no one taking names/addresses ( as I’d heard from other flights from FL), and this time I didn’t check on the United Club, but quickly caught the AirTran home.