wayman
Engineer
So, last month I decided I'd take take advantage of the PHL-ARD $10.80 round-trip (coupled with my regular grocery store being right at ARD, along with a half-dozen other stores I enjoy window-shopping at) to try to reach Select (I needed about 3,000 AGR at that point, or about 10 round-trips in Nov and Dec on top of already-planned LD travel). The double-points (not counting towards Select) was an added incentive. At first, the ~$108 for Select in 2008 seemed a little silly, but yesterday on the train I started working it out....
If I were to do this twenty times a year in 2008 (about every other week), I'd spend $216 on grocery shopping transportation. If I figure I'm saving about 400 miles of driving, which would cost about $74 in gas (not counting additional costs for car wear-and-tear), then taking the train costs only $142 over that. (Technically, though, it costs $142 plus forty SEPTA trolley tokens, or $200.) Twenty round-trips is 4,000 AGR, and I'll handily get about 1,600 in LD AGR anyway (I take a minimum of a couple round-trips to LYH at 300 apiece and one to BOS which I could do on Acela for 1,000, each year).
So if I make my 5,000 in 2007, in 2008 with Select the twenty shopping trips will get me 5,000 AGR for shopping trips (25% bonus) and an extra 400 AGR for the LD. That's 5,400 AGR for $200, or $0.037 per point, not even counting the two FC upgrades (about $90 apiece for PHL-BOS) and any additional AGR from double-point bonuses, nor additional AGR if I were to pay for the $216 in tickets on an AGR credit card (which I'll apply for in January). And that's enough travel to qualify me for Select in 2009, so this is a self-sustaining system.
If my math is right, suddenly these shopping trips become a no-brainer. Wowzers. (Well, except for the bit where they might result in more impulse buys from Williams Sonoma or the Apple Store due to increased regular visits
)
If I were to do this twenty times a year in 2008 (about every other week), I'd spend $216 on grocery shopping transportation. If I figure I'm saving about 400 miles of driving, which would cost about $74 in gas (not counting additional costs for car wear-and-tear), then taking the train costs only $142 over that. (Technically, though, it costs $142 plus forty SEPTA trolley tokens, or $200.) Twenty round-trips is 4,000 AGR, and I'll handily get about 1,600 in LD AGR anyway (I take a minimum of a couple round-trips to LYH at 300 apiece and one to BOS which I could do on Acela for 1,000, each year).
So if I make my 5,000 in 2007, in 2008 with Select the twenty shopping trips will get me 5,000 AGR for shopping trips (25% bonus) and an extra 400 AGR for the LD. That's 5,400 AGR for $200, or $0.037 per point, not even counting the two FC upgrades (about $90 apiece for PHL-BOS) and any additional AGR from double-point bonuses, nor additional AGR if I were to pay for the $216 in tickets on an AGR credit card (which I'll apply for in January). And that's enough travel to qualify me for Select in 2009, so this is a self-sustaining system.
If my math is right, suddenly these shopping trips become a no-brainer. Wowzers. (Well, except for the bit where they might result in more impulse buys from Williams Sonoma or the Apple Store due to increased regular visits
)
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