A few days ago I wrote a detailed review of the Starbucks Rewards Visa Card. I briefly talked about how to redeem Starbucks Rewards Stars, though after publishing the post, a colleague of mine made me aware of the fact that there was so much more I could be doing to maximize my Stars.
Continue reading: Guide To Maximizing Starbucks Rewards Stars
Share your questions, experiences, and thoughts below.
Double long shot on ice in a venti cup, then refill cold brew (no ice) for free. Been doing it for years, that way I don’t feel as scammy as I would ordering the Misto.
Also too, you can buy Starbucks gift cards in the MileagePlusX App and get 1 mile per dollar
Stacking star rewards. They’ll offer a bonus for buying, say, a breakfast sandwich, a hot drink & an iced drink over a certain time frame. They’ll sometimes overlap this with a double star day.
I use my Starbucks Rewards stars in Canada (where I live now), but I have a US account since I started the program while living in the US. I can redeem US-earned stars in Canada, and the prices are the same for redemptions except for one category.
Redeem 250 Starbucks Stars in Canada to get a salad, sandwich, or protein box (it's 200 Stars in the US).
Otherwise for all other redemptions, the prices are the same in Canada as in the US.
Redemption rates for Canada:
Redeem 25 Starbucks Stars to customize your drink — this includes an espresso shot, dairy substitute, or a syrup
Redeem 50 Starbucks Stars to get a brewed hot coffee, bakery item, or hot tea
Redeem 150 Starbucks Stars to get a handcrafted drink, hot breakfast sandwich, oatmeal, or your favorite drink
Redeem 250 Starbucks Stars to get a salad, sandwich, or protein box
Redeem 400 Starbucks Stars to get select merchandise or at-home coffee
The birthday reward is ONLY good ON the day of your birthday. They have been narrowing the range of days for a few years.
Thank you, Lucky. They are masters of marketing. Now if Starbucks would roast and brew drinkable coffee, I would go out of my way to visit them. Now I visit them because they are at every corner and takes absolutely no effort to get their coffee when in the hurry.
In additional to the regular targeted promo awards that show up in the app, also keep an eye out for their seasonal contests. There will be an alternate method of entry in most of them that get you two plays per day for only a few seconds of finding the AMOE link and letting the form fill in with autocomplete. Last spring's contest happened when a lot of stores were either closed or had few customers because of the pandemic and I think i ended with about 500 stars from daily AMOE plays.
In my mind the best value for me is using 50 points towards a pastry. Costs about 75% of a drink but only 33% of the points.
My standard is a venti brewed coffee. There is a Starbucks directly on my daily commute so I order ahead on the app before I leave for work and pick it up (was doing this before the pandemic). There are better coffees around, but I'm not adding an extra five miles just for that...
Promos give bonus stars almost every week, I always register for them. I can finish the ones which are "earn X stars by making Y purchases over these days" easily with my daily purchases. Others depend on the number of stars I get for the purchases. I generally don't buy other stuff unless I'm getting 6+ stars per dollar total though that can change depending on what my day will be like, and what they want me to buy.
I save up my stars. Before the pandemic I'd occasionally get treats for my team using stars but they are all WFH now. I also use them when traveling, both at airports and when driving...Starbucks is (nearly) everywhere and has consistent offerings. At one point I had just over 4,000, and used them all within a two-week span.
I save my rewards for Hawaii or resort locations where the cost may be higher for the same item I normally order.
under ordinary circumstances i would earn and redeem all the time. right now, otoh, that's just not happening.
> Stars never expire with the free debit card too.
this is absolutely not true. they do tell you when the stars will expire, but they absolutely expire. i had large piles of stars expire during the pandemic, and i complained to customer service and they reinstated them, but i am not sure they'd do this consistently ...
I wonder if you can redeem UK stars in the USA? I know the gift cards work OK
Our scheme only offers 150 stars for a free drink, so much pricier than yours. On the upside they don't expire for 2 years, which is just as well given how infrequently I visit Starbucks!
@Alan likely you can't. I remember emailing Starbucks CS about not being able to redeem or earn US stars in Japan. They said that the star system was localized to your country, or maybe just Japan didn't participate in the star system. Interesting about the US/Canada discussion above. Give it a try anyway!
Earning and spending have to be taken into consideration.. using the promo’s, but X number of times (which is really items, so never buy TWO items on one order, always make TWO orders) that is earning power to compound just the regular 2$ per or 3$ per stars earning power.. SPENDING is another one.. I really NEVER use 150 for a 3.65$ cocoa, when it can be used for my Ventir Dark or Decaf orders at only 50 stars per. Usually a 2.95$ item here in CA. Ouch.. that’s nearly 3x the purchasing power. Getting a second rewards account can net you even better offers, sometimes one account offers 200 stars for 7 purchases (remember, ITEMS, not visits) and another rewards account will offer 200 stars for only 5 purchases.
I figure overall I spend in $$ about 1/2 of what anything actually costs.. but I will say, I’m going to have to try the misto. Sounds like a nice latte for 1/3 the stars.
As Ricky noted, stacking offers is a great way to build points fast. It's about the only time I go there, actually.
Beyond Dbl Star days on top of an offer, I've also received more than offer with an overlapping time period where one purchase would count towards both. "Order two days in a row for 50 pts" and on one of those days they'll also offer "buy any latte and get 25 pts" or something like that.
Howard, you should have run for the White House when you had your chance. Look who's going in there now. You could have taken him.
I redeemed 400 to pick up a package of their whole bean Kona reserve which was selling for $40+ - so probably 10 cents per star. Otherwise I redeem 50 for a cheese danish at around 6 cents per star. I’ve always been a fan of the company- even had a yellow lab named Starbuck.
Is it sad that I don't have to worry about my points expiring because I can use them for getting merch? Sometimes I think that getting that many stars and use them often for a free drink or item or merch is a little sad. Maybe I give Starbucks too much money. lol! The merch does have to be $20 and under, I think. I just got a nice sparkly red cup from them.
Do you know about the Joe and the Juice app?I worked out the best redemption options for them, much like you did with Starbucks in this post, as well as the most efficient way to achieve top tier status with them.
@J, the last time I looked into it the Calgary locations were the only ones which worked with US stars. That might have changed, it was years ago.
You can earn stars in the UK with the US-based app but I'm not sure about burn.
Countries that Starbucks US stars can be earned and redeemed, see -> https://customerservice.starbucks.com/app/answers/detail/a_id/2010/~/where-can-i-use-my-starbucks-card
I have used my Starbucks rewards in Japan and France. My big saver is a lemonade black ice trenta (lite ice) using stars & almond croissants...it sucks now that you can't get refills since you can't work at a location (or just hang and read this website).
Funny, Lucky I was thinking about you doing this article about a month ago and was sorta doing the math when I got up to 500+ stars. Especially since they've penetrated just about every train station (WAS_Union has two), airport and street corner of major cities. The availability to preorder is a great advantage
Starbucks uses an AI to send you targeted promotional star challenges (i.e. buy x times for 100 extra stars). There are a couple of interesting plays, one basic the other works with a little management.
a) Most offers are based on visits not items purchased. So when using the mobile app always split every item out to a separate purchase. Each counts. As it is mobile it adds no extra burden to the crew working whereas asking to separate the purchase at the register would P them Off.
b) have 2 separate cards and accounts. The targeted offers 'learn' your spend and match with harder challenges to encourage more spend from your baseline. Ignore one card for around 2-3 months and it resets and you get super easy offers for bonus stars on spend you would do anyway. Then switch and start ignoring the first card. Switch off every couple of months.
I can't believe there's only one other comment here about using the refill policy on top of rewards. A cold brew is 150 stars, but you can get it refilled after getting a 50 star drink. Higher star values come from doubling your drinks. An example would be a modest custom cafe misto for 6.35 + a vanilla sweet cream cold brew for 4.75 all from 50 stars. That puts you at .22 per star vs .03 per star for the cold brew only @ 150 stars.
At least don't redeem 150 stars for a coldbrew, get a random coffee, dump it and get a refill.
Thank you so much for posting this!! Cafe Misto will be my go to drink from now on!! I really appreciate you sharing this, I will be able to stretch my rewards out longer!! Thanks again!
Buy Starbucks gift cards at Staples and earn 5x if you have the Chase Biz Ink.
Bakery and Breakfast items are the deal. You could literally walk in and buy a dozen for 600 stars. I also order a Trenta cold foam which logs in around $7+
Buy my Starbucks gift card at Fred Meyer, on 4x fuel points day for gift cards (maximum fuel points earned). Mame gift card purchase with my AK Air visa (earning airline miles). Utilize my Starbucks gift card on one of the monthly 2x star day (and since paying with a starbucks card already gives 2x stars , this turns into 4x stars). The rest of the time, I reload my Starbucks card in App, using my AK Air card, and get double miles since Starbucks earns double mileage points.
ALSO, use my stars for at home coffee, because ultimately you save money making it at home!