Starbucks plays such a role in the life of a remote worker or road warrior. While sure Coworkaholic prefers coworking spaces, there’s plenty of times when the closest ‘bucks is gonna have to do. Are you maximizing your spend at Starbucks? Besides signing up for their card, or purchasing Starbucks Cards on a shopping portal, here’s what you need to know about some upcoming changes to the Starbucks Rewards program.
Another “Devaluation” of a Loyalty Program
About three years ago Starbucks “devalued” their rewards program when they switched to a revenue-based points earning system. No longer were drinks free after a certain amount of visits, but once you earned 150 stars (2 stars earned for every $1 spent).
Sure you lost the ability to ring up each of your items per visit separately (trying to maximize outsized value) but there are plenty of bonus star challenges based on “trips”. By ordering drinks individually on mobile order, you can still game the system…a bit.
From Revenue-Based Earning to Revenue-Based Burning Too…
There have always been plenty of benefits to the Starbucks Rewards program.
There is plenty of talk online that Starbucks is going to devalue the program again by moving closer to revenue-based redemption. Word is that redemptions will work as follows:
Rewards will soon be changed to different tiers:
25 stars – will get you modifications for your drinks like an extra shot, up to 1$
50 stars – will get you any size cup of coffee, tea or bakery item
150 stars – will get you any handcrafted beverage or breakfast sandwich (previously 125 stars)
200 stars – will get you lunch sandwiches, salads, or protein boxes
400 stars – will get you packaged coffee or merchandise for a single item up to $20
I’ve always been one to save up stars for use at Starbucks locations at airports (since they are always so much more expensive) but I’m usually a drip or iced coffee drinker. For me, there’s really no downside since I can get a cup of coffee for 1/3 of the amount of stars I’d normally spend.
There’s no official word, but make sure you use your stars for those multi shot, super customized $10 drinks and food items before these changes go into effect!
The post Starbucks Rewards to Update Star Redemption Rates was first published on Coworkaholic.