New Starbucks Rewards Program: 2 Stars Per $1 Spent, Double Star Days & More (Starts in April)
My Starbucks Rewards members! Starting April 12th, My Starbucks Rewards will become Starbucks Rewards and you will receive more Stars awarded based on what you buy – no matter how often you visit.
With this new program, you’ll earn 2 Stars for every $1 you spend on coffee, food, drinks, and mugs AND Starbucks will be introducing monthly Double-Star Days where Gold members will earn 4 Stars for every $1 spent on all eligible purchases. As a Gold member, once you earn 125 Stars, you’ll snag a FREE Reward for anything on the menu. Note that all the Stars in your account will multiply to reflect the change once the new program launches in April.
I feel rather stupid seeing people that bought drinks under 2 bucks getting free drinks. My husband and I would go and order 2 drinks at least once a week and the cost was at over 20 bucks for both and we never got free drinks. I achieved gold status twice but never had any benefits or any emails for free items. I never knew much about the stars because I never would see anything good happening with them so I didn’t know to pay separately. We’ve been going for about 4 years. Guess I should check into this.
How do you spend $20 on two drinks? Are there really $10 drinks at Starbucks? I haven’t been in a Starbucks for years. I can’t believe people spend that much on drinks. Starbucks won’t lose any money from me cause they never got any.
To each their own.
The largest size vanilla bean frap and add 7 shots of espresso and an iced vanilla coffee with 5 to 7 shots as well and add vanilla powder. The prices actually went up 2 weeks ago and we now spend about $22. But since we don’t go daily like some, we go once a week and splurge on a coffee milkshake and people watch on the Las Vegas Strip.
Once you make 12 purchases you should get a free item, not order but single item. An email reminder will be sent to you that is linked to your account or you can easily keep track of your star accumulation, load your gold card/ access your account on the app. The rewards do expire and you do have to request to pay with a reward, it will not automatically pay if there is one on your account. If my husband and I were getting 2 drinks we would each pay because your rewards were not tracked by amount but by transactions so we drink for “free” at Starbucks often! Also with your gold card account you can get refills for FREE on regular drip or iced coffee. I love Starbucks program. I have a feeling this new program will actually be more difficult to reach those “free rewards” if you are like me and typically only have drip coffee or an americano… unless you are splurging by using a reward. Hope this helps! CHEERS!!
Overall I like the change. I use my Starbucks card at Teavana to purchase $40-$75 worth or product only to end up with one star. When I do buy a drink at Starbucks it’s typically in the $4 range. Much better star return now, and the 300 points for gold doesn’t bother me.
You can use your starbucks giftcard at Teavana? Never knew that!! I was missing out!
I think this might be a good time to rework my budget…Sorry Starbucks…you’re out!
I agree, being a starbucks gold member for over 5 years, this is getting crazy! I need to reconsider too!!
I looove the coffee bar at whole foods! Much cheaper. I’m not a fancier coffee drink consumer, but I still go to Starbucks every now and then. Whole foods has a nice selection. I love their $2 double espresso. Maybe there is one near you?!
So now they want you to spend at minimum $62.50 to be a part of their rewards and $150 to maintain gold level whereas it use to be just a min of $12(say $1 transactions) to get rewards and $30 to be a SB gold member. I did my math. It’s highway robbery. No go for SB.
What are you buying for only $1? I think most Starbucks members are spending $2-$4/drink.
Someone said they bought a $1 banana and it’s considered a transaction. Ppl used to split their payment up as well by charging $0.25 on their SB app to paying the rest on their corporate card or whatever and they still get a star from that transaction.
Cookie straws and cake pops are under $2
I thought before you only earned stars on actual drinks and food not any merchandise? For me I think this is better even though I probably don’t spend anything near $150 a year maybe $50 a year cause of course I like the fraps if anything. Much better in my eyes!
I was annoyed with my birthday freebie. I went in the day before my birthday and it wasn’t available. My birthday falls on a holiday of which they are always closed on. So I went in on the day after my birthday and it had expired. They gave me 1 day to use it before it expired and they were closed. I use to have a full week for redemption.
My birthday freebie also expired ( I was sick for 2 weeks, DID NOT WANT COFFEE ). I emailed Starbucks and asked them to re-active it. I was no problem and they gave me 4 weeks to redeem it.
I used my birthday freebie one day after expiration last year. The code went through the Starbucks system. Never hurts to ask the cashier to try if the offer is still valid.
See.. as a gold member, that is when you call Starbucks and explain to them the situation, they will give you another free drink on your card!! Every time I have called them they have been helpful and accommodating.
Not happy. The coffee shop is a no, but the coffee is way better than dunkin donuts still. Make my starbucks coffee at home. We should complain to customer service.
I do not often go to Starbucks and only join this past fall. I never knew much about how it worked so it seems fine to me. One should get more stars for spending more money. At least they did not make the mistakes like Kelloggs Family rewards did, I have about 18K points and have not purchased anything since I do not want to upload my receipts and few stores loyalty cards are in my area. I find Aldi brand is quite good and rarely use my points to get (over priced) coupons from KFR. I just add bonus points that I find here and when my points are used up I will be done with Kelloggs/
I use my KFR for Starbucks cards. Lol!
what?!?! you could do that? That is AMAZING! What is the limit you can purchase?
Yes! Sometimes Pampers, Huggies and Disney Movie Rewards offer Starbucks eGCs. And if you do Ibotta & Savingstar, you can cash out for Starbucks too!! But KFR doesn’t have Starbucks right now. Also if you do Swagbucks or MyPoints, you can cash points out for eGCs as well.
Like the new 2 for $1 – dislike the new shorter redemption periods. I don’t like that the stars will expire in 6 months or that you only have a few days to use your bday freebie.
As someone who was inline behind someone buying 6 drinks in different transactions this morning…I like this new system. People doing crud like that are the reason we can’t have nice things. Remember the days of $1 off tide packs that could be used on trial sized?
I don’t know if I’m totally against the new change, I think now I’ll actually get stars Bc my husband is the one that gets sent on the Starbucks run and he always just did one order so I would only get 1 star for a $20 order… BUT, my birthday is in January and before you got time to actually use your birthday reward and this year I got the reward one day before my birthday and it expired the day after my birthday. This is probably a shocker but I don’t have a Starbucks near by (this is why the hubs is amazing and drives to get some) sooo I didn’t get my birthday drink this year. So just a heads up to everyone on their birthday reward. (If it’s still available)
Yeah, my bday is in Dec and in the past the reward is avail a day or so before. So when my sis and I were out shopping, I checked the app thinking I’d have a free drink and nope, not there. Got a drink anyway. 2 days later I checked the app and my birthday reward was expired! Was not happy at all. With it being the holidays, I didn’t have time to call CS to complain about it. Still upset I missed out LOL
I don’t like it. My regular drink is $3.75
With the new program, I’ll have to buy 17 drinks to earn my free drink vs now I only need 12 🙁
I agree…. I just added up what $4.85 was… Yep.. 15 “buys”… and…. with a $4.85 purchase, we will only get a $4 credit X 2… 85 cents close to another point… BUMMER !!. DO NOT LIKE IT AT ALL…. I am already not looking forward to redeeming my Free Birthday drink in 2 days…. I have to drive 20 miles to a Starbucks !! Second BUMMER !!!
I have to drive 45 miles to my closest Starbucks!! This is gonna bite!!!
Im on a college campus with 3 Starbucks. My double shot coffee/chai is priced high enough there that it should only take me about 15-17 visits to get a free drink. Not too big a deal. Im still working through gift cards I got for graduation last year anyway. 😉
Personally, I like the new program. It should have *always* been based on the dollar amount spent so people couldn’t take advantage.
We always buy multiple items in the same transaction and I have always felt jilted for having to only earn 1 star for $10-$15 worth of purchases. We never wanted to pay separately and inconvenience the people in line behind us. This resolves our issue.
In my opinion, them changing the program to be this way, is a more accurate representation of “you get out what you put in”. The people that consistently spend and have multiple items, get rewarded. This is a true rewards system based on actual dollars invested.
$8/day on 2 Americanos/food = 1 star x 12 days = 96.00 (old program earns reward item after 12 days and 12 stars at $96 spent)
$8/day on 2 Americanos/food = 16 stars x 8 days = 64.00 (new program earns reward item after 8 days and 125 stars for $64)
On the new program, we will earn faster and spend less to do it. I am a fan.
Agreed. I’m not one to split my order for extra stars. I love the new program.
I only go to Starbucks in the airport or when I’m on the road. I keep money on my app so that I don’t have to reach for $$$. I always get the discounted ecard from Groupon.
If anyone has extra time I recommend reading customer comments on twitter using hash tag #starbucksrewards. Very funny and creative.
I think it’s ironic that all this talk about how much people are spending on coffee is on an app created to saving money. 🙂 I’m just as bad as anyone else but I buy Starbucks cuz I like it, and the free drinks are an extra perk. Maybe this is an opportunity for everyone to start supporting local coffee shops and keeping your money local 🙂
Why is it ironic? I use star codes from buying bags of Starbucks and Via only when on sale for my free drinks. Hopefully the star codes remain the same relative value (it appears to be ten stars starting in April). My husband buys the New York Times for $6 every Sunday he will get 12 stars vs. 1 currently.
To each their own.Liking nice things doesn’t mean you still can’t save on them.
BIG FROWN. I have used Starbucks about 5x more than I used to (right now I go about 5 times per week) after I started using the app. I LOVE THE CURRENT REWARDS PROGRAM. If they change it, I see that my frequency will decline. I hope they see the numbers dive so they can re-work the program.
I hate this. I’ve significantly decreased my Starbucks purchases even though I their vanilla syrup is my very favorite, because it’s just too expensive now. And now I’ll need to get just over 3 more of my orders in before I can get a reward. I miss the older system that gave free syrup and other perks to rewards members. Boo.
Jlove, you can buy their syrup! Just ask and it’s about $10 and it includes a pump. I always buy the vanilla and I used to get cinnamon dolce but I found a dupe recipe.
I can see it being tough for the ppl spending under $3 when they go, but it def helps the 80% who spend over that. Separate transactions when you have 10+ ppl in line, and every other customer wants to do this, takes up time when ppl are rushing in the AM. Then they wonder why it’s taking so long too. It’s a free program. They could have nothing for customers, so why complain? I don’t see Coffee Bean doing this, or Petes, or Better Buzz. You can still use the rewards program to get free apps, discounts and info about incentives going on, like frappy happy hr! Or about new drinks/food:)
That means you have to spend at least 62.50 to get one free. That’s insane.
It’s not really that insane, it’s 10-15% in value (depending on the price of the item you redeem the reward on). It’s not very common for places to reward customers in the 15% range (of monies spent), so I think Starbucks has a good formula here, if the item you get as a freebie is at least over $6. If you assume the member will buy a $6-8 drink or an expensive bistro box with their earned reward, this falls right in line with that 10-15% range of return investment. Most places don’t reward in the 10%+ range like Starbucks has chosen to.
Examples:
Target Red Card 5% off
JCP Rewards $10 back for $100 spent (reward is 10%)
DSW $10 for 1500 points (which takes $150) (reward is 6.6%)
Gap $10 reward for 1,000 points (which takes $200) (reward is 5%)
Old Navy $10 reward for 500 points (which takes $100) (reward is 10%)
yikes!!! 🙁
Not cool for people like me who visit daily for a cup of coffee… 🙁
At the moment, I’m 2 stars away from Gold. So I need to get 2 more drinks asap.
I rarely go to Starbucks BUT I do buy bagged coffee at the grocery store (make sure the stars are on it due to people peeling them off!).
I only go to Starbucks for a special treat or when it’s a bonus star promo. But you have to be careful about that too. During the most recent promo, I didn’t get my 7 bonus stars. So I emailed Starbucks and they manually added the stars. Then a month later, I received the stars again. According to the terms, I was supposed to get my bonus stars 2 weeks after the end of the promo (but I received it a month after).
But, IMO, this new rewards set up is ideal for people who buy often. Especially for multiple drink orders, ie: business meetings! A former supervisor would treat our team to a drink 1x per week.
Does anyone know how they will reward coffee beans bought at a regular store? I do agree with others that these stickers should be inside the packages. So many are peeled off by non purchasers.
I currently order ahead and pay via the app so I can earn 1 star per item- new system will earn less stars overall for me.
This is great for people like me that purchase multiple items in one transaction but only get one star for the entire order, even if it is over $20. Yay, Starbucks! I like this change!
I don’t like this one bit. Now Im a gold member but know I have to earn 325 stars to get gold. Are you kidding me. I won’t be going here anymore. Second. I buy alot of bag coffee, they no longer give you a free cup of coffee when you turn in the old bag. What a joke. Instead you get a star…And the amount you need for a free drink is ridulous. So I will no longer go there.
Yikes,!!!! Now it forces to think about the $$$$ I’m wasting on,a daily basis. SORRY Starbucks, I’m going to have to reconsider my priorities…..
#makemyowncupofjoe
The only reason I buy Starbucks is cuz I like their coffee and the free drinks are an extra perk. Maybe this is an opportunity for everyone to start supporting local coffee shops and keeping your money local 🙂
I don’t think Starbucks will see much of loyalty clients anymore!
Good job Starbucks! I am personally glad that they have changed their rewards program to actually REWARD those that are spending a good amount of money with them. I see too many and “hear” too many on this board taking advantage of the program by spending .99 cents on a banana or a dollar on a cup of coffee then getting rewarded with a $6-$8 item after spending only $12. Meanwhile frequent customers who spend $12-$20 in one visit like myself have to spend 12x as much to get the same reward… unless you hold up the line by splitting up your transactions, another “cheat” on the reward system. If you plan on discontinuing going to Starbucks because you get rewarded for spending as little as possible in order to obtain a reward then good riddance…. thanks for making the line shorter for those of us who simply enjoy splurging on good coffee and feel fortunate that that splurge will eventually yield a reward BONUS!
I don’t think any person would think buying 12 bananas for $12 plus tax in order to get one $6 drink for free makes sense…LOL The only time I would buy something small like a cakepop in order to get an extra star was when I was a star away from a reward. And no, it’s not getting rewarded for spending as little as possible… Even buying 12 tall coffees would amount to about $24 plus tax. They are still putting in time and money and showing loyalty. Enjoy your short lines…
Actually Sofia the second post was from a person who said they buy a 99 cents banana everyday to get a star. To take that one step further checkout Starbucks FB page…. hundreds outraged that now ALL rewards members havery to spend the same to get it. See now all those loyal single cup of coffee a day drinkers will still get rewards but it will take them longer. That is the fair thing to do. Spent more, visit more your rewards will accrue faster… spend less, visit less you still get the same reward but it takes longer to accrue. Something tells me had they changed it based on the ticket price people would be equally upset. What if they said you could only get a tall coffee as your reward
Peet’s coffee, here I come…
So on the “old” rewards program, it favored those of us who buy the much less expensive regular coffee drinks, but wasn’t fair to those who get the more expensive drinks or have several drinks in one order. The “new” program favors those who buy pricey drinks/multiple drinks and isn’t fair to those who just buy the coffee. So Starbucks just flip-flopped which type of customer they favor. As someone who just buys coffee at around $2 a cup, and always used my free drink reward to get a regular cup of coffee, I will definitely scale back my Starbucks purchases now that there isn’t much of an incentive to go there.
Same as you Rebecca. Regular coffee drinker here with the occasional “fancy” drink. I’m cashing in my stars and will definitely be scaling back my Starbucks. With gold status expiring after 6 months and double point days for gold members only. This is just pure BS! I can go to McDonalds for my regular coffee and get a free one after I buy 5. Much more economical
I am not happy with the program. I tend to buy 1 drink per transaction — these are around $3-4. With the new system to achieve a free drink I need to go over 30 times. The Dunkin Donuts program is much better, I will be completely stopping going to Starbucks due to this.
If you spend $4 which equals 8 stars, you would need to go 16 times to earn a reward not 30 times.
Does NOT work for me either.,,, Lowering promotions has been a trend with Starbucks for over a year, now.
What is the reward for a star on a bag of coffee now? With old program you got a star for every bag purchased. I buy a lot of bags because I sell Starbucks brewed at my business. Will they still give points for bags purchased in supermarkets/ Starbucks stores?
Yes, I believe it will be 10 points. There is a FAQ on the Starbucks website that spells it out
The program is a horrible one and anybody who goes regularly and has any math skills can figure out that you will have to spend a lot more money to get a free drink. I myself am prepared to give up my pike drinking gold status and convert to DD dark roast where i can more quickly earn free drinks.
The ones complaining the loudest are the ones spending $2 per order. After 12 stars/$24 they get a free drink. Someone who spends $5+ per drink, spends $60+ to get their free drink. So now the $2 spender has to spend just as much as the $5 spender to get a free drink. Sure it benefits the $5 spender as they’ll get their free drink quicker. And bottom line is Starbucks is in business to make money. Dunkin could always change their program in the future too, and we’d be right back to square one with the complaints!
Actually, nobody will be getting their rewards quicker. Compared on a dollar to dollar basis, everyone has to spend significantly more to get any rewards. I did the math.
The thing people are not talking about is apples to apples. I see comments all over this thread talking about only getting one star for a $20 purchase, never getting free rewards, etc etc. The way to really compare the programs is to pick a set dollar amount and compare. Let’s do the math.
OLD NEW
1 star per purchase (NOT per item or per $) 2 stars per $ spent
30 stars to gold 300 stars to gold
12 stars for free gold level reward 125 stars for free gold level reward
Let’s see how these programs compare for a $4.00 purchase, since many people here consider that an average purchase.
$4 spent = 1 star $4 spent = 8 stars
1 star = .03% of gold requirement 8 stars = .026% of gold requirement
1 star = .08% of free reward requirement 8 stars = .06% of free reward requirement
@$4 each, 7.5 purchases required to meet gold @$4 each, 37.5 purchases required to meet gold
@$4 each, $30 in purchases required to meet gold @$4 each, $150 in purchases required to meet gold
@$4 each, 12 purchases required for free reward @$4 each, 31.25 purchases required for free reward
@$4 each, $48 in purchases for free reward @$4 each, $62.50 in purchases for free reward
ALSO – free rewards now expire. Once you have accumulated 125 stars, you are eligible for a free reward. That must be redeemed *within six months* of reaching 125 stars. Although that’s not usually an issue, it’s yet another new limitation.
The bottom line is that you used to get a LOT more for your dollar, as long as you didn’t blindly combine expensive items into a single order. Those of you who only splurged on insanely expensive combinations once in a while will still not benefit. You’ll earn a lot more stars per purchase, but your sporadic purchasing won’t net you much over time.
This plan works best for those customers who can afford to use Sbux as ther regular daily coffee stop. The rest of us are SOL.