Starbucks Canada is changing its reward system and to start it off, it is having a promotion where you can earn Gold Level Status by making just one purchase by May 2, 2016. If you are a Green Member, you will become Gold; however, any Stars you have received will reset to zero. If you were already a Gold Member, your status will be extended by one year.
In the old Starbucks Rewards “visits-based” system, if you made 12 purchases, you receive a reward drink regardless of the cost of items purchased. In the new “spending-based” system, you will need to spend approximately $62.50 in order to accumulate enough Stars to get one free drink (2 Stars per $1 spent and 125 Stars redeemed for a reward drink).
If you take the new spending requirement of $62.50 and divide it by the number of visits from the old “visits-based” system, you will get $62.50/12 visits = $5.21 per visit. What this number means is that if you spend less than $5.21 per visit at Starbucks, you are “worse off” than before; on the other hand, if you spend more than $5.21 per visit, you are actually better off with the new “spending-based” system.
As you can see, the new Starbucks Rewards system is better for customers who buy more expensive drinks as well as food. This system is worse for customers who simply purchase their morning coffees for about $2. Despite the new changes, Starbucks is running numerous promotions where you can earn bonus stars on Double-Star Days, personalized offers, online shopping, Star Reward events, and more.
Gold Level: 300+ Stars
- Monthly Double-Star Days
- Personalized Gold Card
- Star Rewards every 125 Stars
Green Level: 0-299 Stars
- 2 Stars per $1 spent
- Free birthday reward
- Free in-store refills
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It isn’t that simple. You’re forgetting all the bonus star events. I’m not even a regular coffee drinker, maybe 7-8 times a year, yet I’ve been a gold member for 5 years. Frankly, I can’t tell you how it happens.
They’re also having a special right now. If you’re currently a Green member, you will be upgraded to gold status by making a mobile purchase by May 2. If you’re currently on Gold level, doing so will add another year.
There is another one, perhaps only for Gold members, in which you get 40 bonus stars when you visit 4 days in a row, 60 for 6 days, and 80 for 8 days. That’s per visits. You can get 112 stars spending merely $16 on 8 small brew coffee – i.e. You could spend less than $23 to get a free item, rather than $62.50 you mentioned.