Starbucks changing Reward Redemption options on April 16 – a mixed bag

If you are participating in the Starbucks Rewards program and got used to the standard 125 points redemption for almost any item of your choice. This party will be over on April 16 in 2019 and it will be replaced with a more complicated rewards structure. For some options, this may be better, for others, it’s a stars price hike.

[Read more…]

Thursday 3/29/18 after 3pm is Starbucks Happy Hour

If you like to try out some of the new drinks or like to get a giant size frapp or mocha, Thursday March 29 after 3pm local time is the right time to do it because Starbucks is having a happy hour sale where espresso-based hand-crafted (made by the baristas, not pre-bottled) are 50% off. Brewed coffee is excluded, thus the “espresso based” in the verbiage. This promotion is activated in your Starbucks account automatically and can be used ONCE per customer during the Thursday promotional period.

[Read more…]

Make a Chase PAY purchase at a Starbucks store and get 300 Bonus Stars [UPDATED]

UPDATE 3/17/18
It’s here! It’s here! Three days after I used Chase PAY to reload my Starbucks gift card, paid at the register at a participating brick and mortar store, the 300 Bonus has arrived! So as suspected, you don’t have to buy an actual product (and miss out on the bonus stars), a reload of your gift card also counts a purchase.

The promotion ends 3/19/18! If you haven’t done this yet, I highly recommend you activate it in the ChasePAY app and get to it! 300 bonus stars are two FREE rewards plus 50 points (40% of a reward)…

ORIGINAL POST
This is a super hot deal if you are participating in the Starbucks Rewards program AND are using (or do not object to start using) Chase Pay, Chase’s mobile payment method. The offer gets you 300 Bonus Stars if you make a purchase at a Starbucks brick and mortar store using the Chase PAY app by March 19 in 2018.

But first, you must activate the offer in the ChasePAY app. Activating the offer also links your ChasePAY account with your Starbucks Rewards account, so have the Starbucks password ready because you have to login to connect them.

[Read more…]

AMEX Offers: 10% Starbucks Statement Credit (up to $5)

If you have an American Express credit card, check the latest AMEX offers! One of them is the return of the Starbucks offer! After you activate the offer in your AMEX account (click the little “Add to Card” bubble at the AMEX offers page), you will earn a 10% statement credit on your Starbucks purchases, up to a $5 statement credit.

In other words, the next $50 you spend at Starbucks will get you $5. That’s the maximum bonus. Might as well reload your Starbucks card with $50+ in one go so you can get the whole $5 statement credit right away 🙂

Starbucks for Life return until January 8 in 2018

The annual “Starbucks for Life” promotion is back as every holiday season, running at Starbucks until January 8 in 2018. You have to first manually accept the terms of the offer and connect it to your Starbucks account. This promotion gets you plays and rewards based on your purchases and various challenges you complete (eg, buy X items on Y days).

The big rewards are the “Starbucks for Life” rewards, but that’s only for a few people. More realistically, you can earn rewards and bonus stars. These are more attainable and practical rewards instead 🙂

Starbucks B&M (21-27): 60 Bonus Starts on $20+ purchases

At Starbucks brick and mortar stores, between November 21-27 in 2017, if you make a single transaction purchase of $20+, you will receive 60 Bonus Stars. 60 bonus stars are 48% towards a reward. You will also receive the standard bonus stars on the purchase amount (40+ regular stars on a $20+ purchase) so you are almost getting a full reward with this purchase.

Strategically this is a good way to stock up on coffee and tea and gifts and coffee mugs and such. Comparing this with “Double Stars”, purchases of $30+ would benefit from Double Stars over this. For purchases under $30, this offer wins.

Note that the $20 minimum must be reached BEFORE taxes and other mandatory local or federal fees (eg CRV) and tips.

Hot Deal Alert: Load $20 or more in Starbucks App using Chase Pay, Get 300 Bonus Rewards Points

This is a massively epic Starbucks Reward member promotion! This showed up in the Starbucks Android app earlier today while I was in-store. If you load $20 or more using the Starbucks app, and pay for it using Chase Pay, you will receive 300 bonus Starbucks rewards points (stars).

300 stars translate to two full rewards and an extra 50 points (40% towards a reward). If you use the rewards to buy the most expensive items you like, or the largest most loaded drinks they have, you are essentially getting about $20 worth of food and drinks by redeeming the rewards. It becomes a virtual BOGO 🙂

HOW LONG DOES IT TAKE TO GET THE BONUS STARS?

I did not babysit the offer, I was driving around and running errands, but 1.5 hours after the $20+ load with Chase Pay I checked my Starbucks Rewards History and there they were 300 Bonus Points!

There seems to be a bug in their system because the rewards show earlier in the day, maybe they flipped the AM with the PM. You will notice your score skyrocketing and the number of Rewards increasing by 2 or 3. Here’s the screenshot of the notification:

New Starbucks Rewards After 2PM Streak Promotion

A good opportunity to try the new Starbucks Holiday menu is a new after 2pm local time promotion they pushed to customers. As usual, you must first activate the offer on the web or using their app. Once you do, you earn bonus stars depending on how many days you visit in a row after 2pm local time between November 14-20 in 2017. That’s Tuesday AM until Monday PM of next week.

Remember, this particular offer is not number of transactions, but rather number of days in a row you visit. So you have to be there every day to make the most of this. The way the promotion is structured, five days in a row gets you the most bonus bang for your buck.

Starbucks Dash (Nov 10-12): Buy 3 Teavana Iced Teas, Get 30 Bonus Stars

Running in parallel with the Holiday drinks promotion, Starbucks Rewards members may have another offer available for them. You have to check your email or app and first activate the offer before you earn the bonus.

It’s a fairly simple and easy to do dash. You buy three Teavana Shaken Iced Teas between November 10-12 in 2017, and you get 30 bonus stars, in addition to the regular stars of the purchase amount.

Starbucks Nov 9-13 (2-5pm local time): BOGO on Holiday Drinks and Cake Pops

The Holidays are coming in faster than the speed of light! The official Holiday drinks have arrived at Starbucks stores, and between November 9-13 in 2017, between 2-5pm local time, they have a “Buy One Get One FREE” promotion on all the Holiday drinks. No coupon is needed. But both drinks must be one of the half a dozen eligible drinks under their holiday menu. Regular mocha or latte drinks are NOT eligible.

But that’s not all! Hidden below the high profile BOGO offer on the drinks, they also have a BOGO offer on the holiday peppermint Cake Pop, along with the Snowman shaped sugar cookie! They go for $2 and $3 respectively each, so with the BOGO, $2 get you two cakepops, or $3 get you two snowman sugar cookies.

Just like the drinks, only the designated holiday menu cakepop and sugar cookie is eligible. You cannot mix and match with regular menu items. You must needs buy two of the same holiday pop or cookie!

FREE Starbucks Reward (125 Stars) when you start a Spotify Premium 60-day trial

If you are participating in the Starbucks Rewards program, check your email for a new and pretty good offer! If you start a free 60-day trial of the Spotify Premium music subscription service, you will receive 125 Starbucks Rewards stars as well. That’s the equivalent of one full reward, which you can redeem at Starbucks for almost any item of any available size in the store.

The Spotify Premium free trial will convert to a $10/month subscription if you don’t cancel it before the free trial expires, so keep that in mind!

Nov 7-13 (2017): Buy 3 select Food Items, Get 150 Bonus Stars [Starbucks Rewards]

This promotion is probably only of interest if you frequently buy food at Starbucks. Otherwise it would be too expensive to do just to get the bonus stars. This is another offer that requires activation, so it is YMMV. Check your emails or the Starbucks app to see if their AI Bots invited you to participate.

The offer runs November 7-13 in 2017 and it is this:

[Read more…]

New Starbucks After 2PM Dash with maximum 100 Bonus Stars

Another new “After 2pm local time” Dash promotion is running at Starbucks Rewards. You have to manually activate this offer by web browser or the Starbucks app IF you have been invited by their computers to participate.

Once you do that, if you make five purchases during the promotion period of October 31st until November 6 in 2017, you will earn 25 Bonus Stars, but the real reason to participate in this promotion is the top of the promotion, if you make seven of more purchases, you get 100 bonus stars, which are 80% towards a reward. So those extra two purchases are a jump of 75 in reward stars!

This is a separate transactions promotion, not a consecutive visits in consecutive days promotion.

Starbucks Dash on Teavana Teas

This is a very easy dash to complete, if you have been invited to participate either by email or within the Starbucks Rewards app. After opting in / activating the offer, all you have to do is buy any three Teavana between October 24-30 in 2017 (start and end dates included), and you’ll get 30 bonus stars, which are 24% of a full reward. You will also earn the normal reward starts on the purchase price of the three teas.

Better yet, you can combine the above purchases with some of the challenges in the Starbucks BINGO, so you can get checkmarks on both promotions with the same purchase. For example, if you plan a big $12+ purchase that coincides with the time period of the $6+ purchase, then you’ll get both of those covered. And if that order includes a tea, you’ll get a checkmark on this offer too!

Starbucks Rewards (Oct 17-23): 100 Bonus Stars with Trio purchase

Starbucks is back with another “Join the Challenge” type of a Rewards promotion for its members. As with previous “Join” offers, you must first activate the offer on your account using the link in their email or the appropriate place in the Starbucks app (not all offers are shown in the app though).

This promotion runs from October 17-23 in 2017, and get you a nice 100 Bonus (80% towards a full reward) when you buy one item EACH from each of the following categories:

  • any Teavana tea
  • any breakfast sandwich (check their menu if you are not sure which ones qualify as “breakfast”)
  • any latte

You must buy one of each, but not in the same transaction. They can be purchased on different days during the promotional period. You’ll only receive one 100 Bonus regardless of how many you buy; eg, if you buy three of each, you’ll still receive 100 bonus stars, not 300.