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Anyone who knows me also knows about my Starbucks® addiction. No matter where I am in the world, I need my morning caffeine fix. Starbucks® Rewards offers two stars per dollar spent with Starbucks® gift cards or money preloaded into the app. These stars can be redeemed for free food and beverages.
Essentially, I was able to get a free iced latte for every $75 I spent with the coffee chain (at my rate of consumption, I earned one free drink each week). This changes soon as Starbucks® announced today that it will be devaluing its redemptions on February 13, 2023.
Current rewards are as follows:
- 25 Stars: Customize your drink with an extra espresso shot, dairy substitute, or a dash of syrup.
- 50 Stars: Free brewed hot coffee, bakery item, or hot tea.
- 150 Stars: Free handcrafted drink, hot breakfast, or parfait. This is the one I use all the time for my Venti nonfat, four pump vanilla latte.
- 200 Stars: Free salad, sandwich, or protein box.
- 400 Stars: Free select merchandise or at-home coffee.
New reward rates:
- 25 Stars: This remains unchanged: an extra espresso shot, dairy substitute, or a dash of syrup.
- 100 Stars: This now gets you free brewed hot coffee, iced coffee, or a bakery item. Iced coffee is a new choice, but the redemption cost will double.
- 200 Stars: That free handcrafted drink, hot breakfast, or parfait now costs 33% more stars.
- 300 Stars: This is the new rate for a free salad, sandwich, or protein box. An increase of 50%.
- 400 Stars: This remains unchanged: free select merchandise or at-home coffee.
I had a feeling that rates would increase at some point. A $6 beverage for 150 stars or a $4 scone for 50 stars seemed like too great a value (especially since Starbucks® runs bonus star promotions weekly). I’m happy with the recent bonus of being able to earn one Delta SkyMile for each $1 spent at Starbucks® (if you haven’t linked your accounts, do so here).
Anthony’s Take: Devaluation of any rewards program is never a good thing. Airlines and hotels do it all the time and now Starbucks® is as well. Will it change my consumption or loyalty? Nope. I’ll still be placing my mobile order each morning.
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Advertiser & Editorial Disclosure: The Bulkhead Seat earns an affiliate commission for anyone approved through the links above This compensation may impact how and where links appear on this site. We work to provide the best publicly available offers to our readers. We frequently update them, but this site does not include all available offers. Opinions, reviews, analyses & recommendations are the author’s alone, and have not been reviewed, endorsed, or approved by any of these entities.
