The points post when the date of the ticket arrives. If you don't go and then change the ticket, they reverse the points and re-post them. [More accurately, if you change the ticket before the date, the points only post once. If you change the ticket on or after the date, they post twice -- even if you change it at 9am for a 4pm train, in my experience at least.]

Those stickers were often just bright orange. You can probably buy fluorescent orange stickers at Staples. Problem is they almost always re-print the ticket these days (waste of paper). I haven't seen a sticker in a long time.

=aw