Archives for January 2017

After 2pm Starbucks Bonus Stars Dash returns (Jan 4-10)

Starbucks definitely wants you to visit their stores after 2pm. The Bonus Star dashes are evidence to this strategy as they have launched yet another “after 2pm” (local time) dash promotion. As usual, these offers may be YMMV, since I have no way of knowing whether they send them to everyone or a subset of their Rewards members. So check your emails and/or the app…

This promotion runs from January 4-10 in 2017, and qualifies you for the bonus on purchases made after 2pm local time. If you make four purchases, you get 50 bonus stars (in addition to the regular stars you earn on the purchase) or if you make six or more purchases, you earn 100 bonus stars. This is purchases, not visits, so if you sit at the store all day after 2pm and keep buying drinks and food, you can earn the bonus in a single day. The binge is on 🙂

You only earn a bonus one time during this promotion, so whether you make 6 or 600 purchases after 2pm local time between January 4-10 in 2017, you will only earn 100 Bonus Stars 🙂

January 4, 2017 Filed Under: foods Tagged With: ,

Free Bagel in January 2017 at Panera (YMMV)

This is a YMMV offer. Not every Panera Rewards member is offered this. I found it in my account when I checked email today. I only shop at Panera occasionally, so this promotion may be intended to encourage hibernating customers to wake up and start visiting Panera on a regular basis. I think they had a similar promotion last year or the year before that (free coffee or something like that).

All you have to do is show your Panera Rewards card or use their app. You get one free bagel per day, but you don’t get a spread. Regardless, most people would feel compelled to buy something, so you can either get a spread or coffee. Unlike the coffee offer of last year, this one is a bit more complicated since you may end up having to buy two items. But if you do this, you will likely accumulate Panera rewards along the way. Still, this is not a slam dunk deal, it depends. You can always do a to-go, grab the free bagel and buy the spread and drink your own coffee/tea away from the premises 🙂

Here’s a partial screenshot from the promotion:

January 3, 2017 Filed Under: foods Tagged With: , ,

Kindle First choices for January 2017 are here (pick one from six for FREE if a Prime member)

January 2017 is here and with it, we get the first round of Amazon Kindle First free e-book options for Prime members. As before, you pick one of the six pre-release e-book choices for free if you are a Prime member. If not, you pay $2. If you want to read more than one of the six books, you have to wait until they are released on the first of the following month (February 1st in this case).

The six choices are *drumroll*

  • “The Mutual Admiration Society” by Lesley Kagen in Family Life
  • “The Night Bird” by Brian Freeman in Suspense
  • “Never Again So Close” by Claudia Serrano, Anne Milano Appel in “Lit Fiction” ~ that’s one way to make literary fiction trendy in the eyes of younger readers 🙂
  • “Palm Trees in the Snow” by Luz Gabás, Noel Hughes in Sagas
  • “In the Shadow of Lakecrest” by Elizabeth Blackwell in Historical Fiction
  • “The Winter Over” (Ned Stark would disagree with that statement!) by Matthew Iden in Thrillers

As usual, if none of them screams at you (READ ME NOW!), just wait a few more days until they pick up more reviews. Since they are pre-release, Kindle First-ers are the only ones reviewing them. You have until January 31st in 2017 to make a pick from this lot. eBooks don’t run out 🙂

January 2, 2017 Filed Under: media Tagged With: , ,

Google Play: Half off a digital Movie purchase

While putzing around Google Play, be on the look out for a new promotion that gets you half-off the digital purchase (not rental) of a movie. The offer shows up when you are wondering about. You have to click the “Redeem Now” in the app. Once you do, the offer will show up in your Google Play account under the “Account” category, further down under the “Rewards” section. You can see them all there, and they include the expiration date too.

A screenshot from an Android smartphone is shown below:

January 1, 2017 Filed Under: media Tagged With: , ,

T-Mobile Tuesday freebies for January 3

We have our first T-Mobile Tuesday of 2017, coming on January 3, and just like stereotypical clockwork, it has a “New Year Resolutions” cliche theme 🙂 A total of four items are offered, three freebies and a coupon. The coupon is $20 off of juice cleansing at “JUS by Julie” or something like that.

The three freebies have one returnee, a FandangoNow movie rental. You can rent a movie up to $5. Unlike the Vudu offer that gave you a balance and you could use it any which way you like, FandangoNow’s credit can only be used on a single movie rental and nothing else. Also note that this is not the more well-known Fandango service, but rather the service formerly known as M-Go that got purchased by Fandango. So that “Now” is important in the name 🙂

The other two freebies are digital and first timers. You get a 1-year digital subscription to the “Shape Magazine”, and you get a 1-month service to the fitness app “Aaptiv”. Apparently now companies go for two “As” in the name to be shown first in alphabetically-sorted results 🙂

January 1, 2017 Filed Under: media Tagged With: ,