Counting down the postings

[wayman]

On the 30th, I took my last ARD-PHL, PHL-ARD trip of 2008, calculated to bring me to 5,028 AGR Rail Points on the year (an embarrassing 2,826 of which were earned from the 16th through the 30th of this month ). I've got an Excel spreadsheet with rows for each date containing each segment ridden that date and the reservation numbers, and every day I check my AGR account page and put the ones which have posted in bold. To date, 900 posted, 1,926 due to post soon! (Not all of those are Keystones; 776 are from my Cardinal/Crescent Christmas trip, so only 21 Keystone segments.)

It's like having an AGR Advent Calendar that goes from about December 20th to January 20th, with a mystery number of points that might post on any given day :lol:

Here's hoping everyone here in a similar situation gets their Select Status without having to make any phone calls or faxes.

 

[Shanghai]

Congratulations on achieving Select status. A nice New Years gift. Enjoy.

 

[The Metropolitan]

Congrats Wayman - you just like living dangerously, don't you?

I had half expected not to make it myself, but thankfully, the tickets for which I purchased companion tickets all posted, taking me to about 5500 for the year once I added a few other DC hops on my own.

Tomorrow, I start the counter again with a one way hop to DC. I'm not sure how in the world I'll make it to 5000 this time, as I don't have any great adventures in mind so far, but who knows, the year is still young.

 

[wayman]

Congrats Wayman - you just like living dangerously, don't you?

I suppose one of my new year's resolutions should be "take three Keystone trips per month, nicely spaced out" Two Acela trips to Boston (one soon, with last year's Select coupons, one in October for the Gathering, with this year's Select coupons) plus 36 Keystone round-trips is Select Plus for 2010... so if my plan of "stay put in Philadelphia for the indefinite future" holds, this should work easily. Less danger = more fun! Plus, the Keystone trips can be a bit more planned and purposeful this way (dinner at TJ's by train; lunch at the Steaming Cow by train; shopping in Philly by train; etc). More purpose = more fun!

I've got 42,000+ AGR at this point, so maybe sometime in 2009 I'll cash in for my first 20k 2-zone reward

 

[wayman]

Congrats Wayman - you just like living dangerously, don't you?

And this morning, whew! I made it to 5,028 rail points when the last of my 2008 trips posted (Since the rail point counter has reset for 2009 on the website, I called AGR to make sure their 2008 numbers agreed with mine.)

 

[diesteldorf]

Congrats Wayman - you just like living dangerously, don't you?

And this morning, whew! I made it to 5,028 rail points when the last of my 2008 trips posted (Since the rail point counter has reset for 2009 on the website, I called AGR to make sure their 2008 numbers agreed with mine.)

Wayman,

Do you have online AGR statements? I was just asking because I am curious to know how AGR was able to check their 2008 numbers to show you had over 5,000? I called a few days ago and the agent told me she couldn't see my total 2008 because the counter had reset. I am in a similar situation. As of 12/31/08, I had 9,154 Rail Points and was 846 points short with 1000 points to post. 500 points posted on 1/6 and 402 points posted on 1/9. I should be over 10,000.

I was told, however, that the computer was showing it had pulled a SELECT on 1/7/09 (before my 402 points posted pushing me over the 10,000 point threshold) to be mailed for the 2009 year. I was also told that the computer will reskan accounts a few times in January and February and update qualification, so it should correct itself and realize I made S+.

I would, however, like someone on AGRs end to manually verify that I have over 10,000 points.

 

[wayman]

I would, however, like someone on AGRs end to manually verify that I have over 10,000 points.

Well, funny you should say it that way, because that's how the AGR agent came up with my 2008 rail points total: manually! December statements won't be printed for another week or two, and apparently those totals aren't readily available in the computer, so she had to take my November statement (I think it's just what I get by email every month) to see how many rail points I'd gotten through 30 November, and then add up by hand all the rail points on my "account activity" page for December. Basically, it's exactly what I'd been doing at home. So I suppose it's not "totally official" since it's not "as calculated by the computer", but the AGR agent's hand count agreed with my count, which was plenty good enough to satisfy me. I was amazed she took the time to do that, actually! I've always been impressed by AGR customer service (though I have to say, it gets even better when you call the Select line).

(Or maybe it's technically the "December statement" which has the total through 30 November, which she looked at, and the "January statement" will have the total through 31 December, and that's what comes out in a week or two? Whatever, you know what I mean.)

 

[Shawn]

I ended 2008 with just over 5100 points! I called this morning and their numbers matched mine too. YAY! 2009 = Select + whoo hoo! I only need to take 1 basic trip to make it, as all of my other reservations bring me up to 9900 whoo hoo!

 

[AlanB]

I ended 2008 with just over 5100 points! I called this morning and their numbers matched mine too. YAY! 2009 = Select + whoo hoo! I only need to take 1 basic trip to make it, as all of my other reservations bring me up to 9900 whoo hoo!

Um, unless I'm reading something wrong or you mis-stated something, you qualified for Select status for 2009. Now that counter has been reset as of January 1st, so you'll now need 10,000 points in this calendar year to make Select Plus status for the remainder of this year and all of 2010.