May 30 to June 5: Buy 3, Get 100 Bonus Stars

If you happen to enjoy or buy regularly the following items, this new promotion running for Starbucks Rewards members (YMMV; must manually activate it first) will get you 100 Bonus Stars (that’s 80% towards a reward) when you purchase one item from each participating product category between May 30 an d June 5 in 2017.

The three product categories are:

  • any Warm sandwich (excluding breakfast sandwiches
  • any Breakfast sandwich
  • any Evolution Fresh Juice

In other words, you have to get one breakfast sandwich, and one non-breakfast sandwich (eg the paninis). You can’t cover both categories with a breakfast sandwich alone. It would be a lot easier to get this bonus that way 🙂

As far as I can tell, you no longer get credit in these type of promotions for purchases made by redeeming a reward. Only items you pay for earn promotional credits. Another loophole closed 🙂

You can only get one 100 Bonus during this promotion. If you buy more of these trios, you will not earn additional 100 bonuses. But you will continue earning the standard rewards (2 Stars per $1).

May 26-28: 50 Bonus Stars if you buy any Frapp AND any Baked Good TOGETHER

If you are a Starbucks Rewards member, especially if you also participating in the Before 11am Dash, there is a new promotion rolling by email, you get 50 Bonus Stars if you purchase any frapp TOGETHER with any baked good in the SAME transaction.

The offer runs May 26-28 in 2017. You must manually activate the offer by clicking on the appropriate place in the email or app.

Good news if this is your favorite combo, you can take advantage of this offer as many times as you like during this promotion which runs for three days.

May 22-29: Starbucks Morning Dash (before 11am local)

The last few Dashes were trying to encourage people to visit their local Starbucks stores after 2pm, but I guess now that the weather is heating up, they want more morning business, because they new promotion that went out by email today wants you to visit before 11am local time.

As usual, you get 50 Bonus Stars if you make six separate transactions before 11am ET during the promotional period, and you get another 50 Bonus Stars if you make eight. Basically once you get to six, you have to get to eight since you get twice as many stars with just two more purchases.

This promotion is running May 22-29 in 2017 (eight days total). You have to first manually activate the promotion by clicking on the appropriate place in the email or the Starbucks app.

Monday is Starbucks Double Stars Day (YMMV)

I don’t know if every customer gets the same “Double Stars” day, but my email says that Monday May 22nd (2017) is Double Stars day! You don’t have to do anything to activate the Monthly Double Stars offer, it happens automatically. Almost everything you buy counts, except for gift cards and reloads.

With Double Stars, it means you earn a free reward for every $31.25 you spend. Typically $62.50 gets you a free reward. Strategically, double stars days are a good time to make capital purchases (coffee machines, coffee cups, etc) and consumables (coffee beans, tea bags, etc).

After 2pm Dash returns at Starbucks Rewards May 9-15 in 2017

This is one of the more common Starbucks Rewards promotions, the “After 2pm Dash”. Just like before, you have to first manually activate the offer, assuming you had been offered this. Check your email or Starbucks app to see if you have. Once you activate it, the promotion runs between May 9-15 in 2017. A whole week. If you make six purchases after 2pm local time, you get 50 bonus stars. If you make eight (or more), you get 100 bonus stars. In other words, once you reach the six, it only takes an extra two for an equal bonus.

50 bonus stars are 40% towards a reward. So doing this promotion is 80% towards a full reward. In addition to the stars you earn on the actual purchase amount.

I believe there is an overlap between this promotion and the Frapuccino Happy Hour, which runs 3-5pm (or 6pm for Rewards members). So you can score a frapp at half off and get strikes towards the Dash. I forgot how long the half-off frapp offer runs, but it finishes before the 15th for sure.

Starbucks Rewards: 125 Bonus Stars on First B&M Grocery Store Receipt submission

Starbucks is slowly but steadily trying to expand the reach of their Rewards program. And they are trying to encourage people to buy more Starbucks at your local brick and mortar stores with this new promotion running between April 18 and May 13 in 2017. If you purchase Starbucks K-Cup pods at B&M Grocery stores, and submit a picture of your receipt, you will receive 125 Bonus Stars, which are the equivalent of a FREE FULL REWARD.

Given that you can redeem your reward for the most expensive items at Starbucks stores, or a 1oz of expensive Teavana tea at Teavana stores, if you can find the Starbucks K-Cup pods at a good deal at your local B&M grocery store, this is not a bad deal!

I haven’t done this promotion yet, so I don’t know exactly how it works. If/when I do this, I will post more about it 🙂 For all the details, check the Starbucks Stars website with handy FAQs explaining it all.

April 21-23: 50 Bonus Stars on Frap & Baked (SBUX Rewards)

This is a new shorter bonus stars promotion from Starbucks, it runs for three days only, but it is simple to do in a single visit. It is YMMV and you have to manually Activate the offer before you earn the bonus.

The offer is this, between April 21-23 (those two days included), if you purchase TOGETHER (in the same transaction) any frappuccino and any baked good item, you will earn 50 bonus stars ~ in addition to the regular stars on the purchase amount. This is 40% of the value of a full reward (125 stars).

If you are a fan of this product combo, you are in luck! Once activated, you can get the 50 Bonus as many times as you like during this promotion. Just monitor your sugar levels because both fraps and bakery goods are loaded 🙂

PS: This may also be a good opportunity/excuse to try the new Unicorn Frappuccino just for LOLz sake 🙂

Bing Rewards: unlock a $5 Starbucks Gift Card offer

If you are participating in Bing Rewards, check your emails or account for a new promotion running until April 30 in 2017. If you make 30 or more searches during the month, you can unlock a $5 Starbucks Gift Card offer! You don’t get the gift card, you can unlock the offer to get the gift card. This may be a targeted promotion to encourage inactive Bing users to use it more often. YMMV since I have no way of checking how many others are eligible for this.

Bonus Stars Dash on Protein Bistro Boxes

This promotion is mostly good for fans of the Protein Bistro boxes, meaning, if you had already been buying them, this promotion can get you some bonus points. As usual, it is YMMV (I don’t know how many people get invited to these) and you have to manually press the “Join the Dash” button in your email invitation to start earning.

You have to buy four protein bistro boxes between April 11-17 in 2017. If you do, you will earn 75 Bonus Stars, which are 60% of a full reward. So it doesn’t make sense to buy these for the reward. A bistro box is $5+, so at best this offer would effectively be (when you do the star equivalency math) a “Buy 5 Get 1 Free” type of thing.

As far as I can tell, getting a protein bistro box by redeeming a previously earned reward will NOT get you a count towards your four, but I haven’t tested it out.

April 10 is Starbucks Double Stars Day (YMMV)

This is YMMV as I do not know if every Starbucks Rewards member gets the same “Double Stars Day” or they get spread out. Check your emails or the Starbucks apps or its notifications. April 10 in 2017 is declared as Double Stars day, where everything you buy earns twice as many Reward Stars as it does on other days. In other words, you are earning 4X per $1 instead of 2X. Which means, with Double Stars, a $31.25 purchase translated into a FULL reward (125 stars).

You can buy as much as you like during this offer. Gift cards and reloads are not eligible for obvious reasons (otherwise everyone would be doubling up on the purchases). It is a good opportunity to restock on coffee bags and teas and buy any of their new spring collection cups.

April 4-10: 100 Bonus Stars with select purchases (SBUX Rewards)

A lot of recent Starbucks Rewards offers have been of the “after 2pm” kind, but rejoice! This new one, a “Join the Challenge” dash (meaning you have to manually click the email or app to activate the offer IF you have been invited to participate) works any time of the day. You have to buy one of each from three different product categories between April 4-10 in 2017, and if you “succeed”, you will receive 100 Bonus Stars, which are 80% of a full reward (a full reward is 125 stars). You can only earn one 100-bonus during this promotion.

As you can see in the screenshot above, you have to buy one of each in the three product categories. The breakfast sandwich is the easiest because they are the lowest priced 🙂 The bistro boxes and Evolution juices are $5+, so that’s where the decision whether to jump in will be made. Considering the bonus is almost a full reward, consider it a “Buy Two, Get One Free” type of a promotion!

Starbucks After 2pm Bonus Stars promotion returns

Starbucks really really really wants us to visit their stores after 2pm local time, because the “after 2pm Dash” is back again! As usual, check your emails/apps to make sure you are eligible for the offer AND to manually activate it, because if you don’t, you won’t get the bonus.

The offer is similar to past promotions, it runs for a week, March 28 to April 3 close of business in 2017. You get 50 bonus stars if you make six purchases after 2pm local time, or 100 bonus stars if you make eight. The way it is structured, basically, if you make six purchases, you have to get to eight for a profit. Simply buy $1 items (string cheese, avocado, or $1.25 tangerines [yes they have these too now!]), and you come ahead in terms of stars!

Starbucks Rewards Double Stars on March 22

If you are participating in the Starbucks Rewards program, check your email or the app. A new promotion just got sent out that announces a second “Double Stars” day for March, Wednesday the 22nd in 2017! This covers almost everything in the store (gift card reloads are NOT eligible for example).

This is great timing, because running until March 27, they have promotion that gets you 25% off take-home on coffee and tea purchases (coffee beans, tea bags, K-cups, etc). They also have a 25% off sale on some of the coffee cups, including a lovely new 16oz at-home hot cup that’s $9 after the discount.

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Starbucks Rewards: 75 Bonus Stars on 4 non-breakfast Sandwiches

Starbucks has another YMMV opt-in “Dash” promotion. Check your email or app to make sure you are eligible before jumping in. You have to manually activate it by clicking on the “Join Dash” at the appropriate place in the email or app.

This offer gets you 75 Bonus stars, which are 60% of a full reward, when you purchase four “Warm Sandwiches” between March 21-27 in 2017. Breakfast sandwiches are EXCLUDED from this promotion per the fineprint in their email, so you have to do this with the more expensive paninis. In other words, this offer is best suited for people who already buy these.

If you are not certain on the difference between breakfast and non-breakfast sandwiches check the menus on their app or website or the giant calorie-menu in their stores ~ just don’t look at the calories of your favorite items because they won’t be your favorites any more 🙂

Starbucks After 2pm Week-Long Dash returns (March 14-20; YMMV)

Don’t forget to take advantage of the previously mentioned Starbucks BINGO offer. If you are a frequent shopper there, you should be able to get the whole of the 300 Bonus Stars. This is no small amount. 300 bonus stars are two full rewards plus another 50 points (40% of a full reward).

But time won’t stand still! Starbucks is back with the “After 2pm” Dash. You have to manually opt-in to this offer, so check your email (associated with your Starbucks account) or the app to see if you have been invited. You have to first click the “Join the Dash” button in their email before you earn any bonuses. This is YMMV, I don’t know if every customer gets every offer.

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