Announcing the First-Ever ‘Automatic Gold’ Offer for Starbucks Rewards Members

Editor’s Note: Updates made to this story the week of April 12 have been moved to the bottom of the page.

Announcing the First-Ever ‘Automatic Gold’ Offer for Starbucks Rewards Members

The new Starbucks Rewards is here, and to celebrate, Starbucks is announcing a major offer for members. For the first time ever, members who make a purchase* at participating Starbucks® stores from April 12-May 2 automatically earn Gold status for a year. Already Gold? Then your status is extended for one year with purchase.

What does it mean to be a Starbucks Gold member? 

Gold members earn Rewards (a free drink or food item from the menu) by collecting Stars. When customers reach Gold status, they receive a Starbucks Gold Card with their name on it, and begin getting access to exclusive perks like new Double-Star Days.**

10 tips for getting the most out of a Starbucks Rewards membership:

1. Automatic Gold (Apr. 12-May 2): Get Gold status automatically when making a purchase at Starbucks and start earning Rewards.
2. Double-Star Days (New!): Keep an eye out for new monthly Double-Star Days, where Gold members will earn four Stars for every $1 spent on eligible purchases when paying with a registered Starbucks Card or the Starbucks app at a participating location.
3. Bonus Stars: A way for members to earn Stars faster either through purchase of a featured item, or by participating in a Star Dash Challenge.
4. Free Refills: Did you know that any Starbucks Rewards member can take advantage of free in-store refills of brewed coffee or tea – both hot and iced? Extra tip: refill your cup with coffee or tea, even if your first drink was a latte or anything else.
5. Free Birthday Reward: All Starbucks Rewards members get a free food or drink item to celebrate their birthday.
6. No Time? No Line: Using the Mobile Order & Pay feature on the Starbucks app, members can order their food or beverage items before arriving at the store, then pick-up without waiting in line.
7. Reward = Anything on the Menu**: Choose a free drink or food item from the Starbucks menu when collecting your Reward.
8. Collect Stars in the Grocery Aisle: Members can earn Stars through purchasing specially-marked Starbucks products. 
9. Spotify Exclusives: A member-only feature of the Starbucks app to instantly identify music playing overhead at Starbucks and add them to your Spotify playlist, taking it with you when you go.
10. Coming Soon – Stars outside Starbucks:  Soon members will be able to earn Stars outside of Starbucks through strategic partnerships with Spotify, Lyft and the Starbucks Rewards™ prepaid card from JPMorgan Chase.

To join Starbucks Rewards, simply register a Starbucks Card at www.starbucks.com/rewards or through the Starbucks app on iPhone and Android.

*Purchase must be made using a registered Starbucks Card or through the Starbucks app linked to a Starbucks account.

**Some restrictions apply. Rewards may be redeemed at participating stores only and exclude alcoholic beverages and multi-serve food and beverage items. Birthday reward expires one day after your birthday. Stars (including partial Stars) earned toward free food and drink rewards expire six months after they are earned. Stars may not be earned on purchases of alcohol and Starbucks Cards. Free refills during same in-store visit. Personalized Gold Card is gold-colored only, it is not gold metal. See starbucks.com/terms for details.

UPDATE 2:22 PM PT 4/14/2016 

As a result of the ongoing adjustments to the backend platform, we have significantly reduced intermittent errors customers may see.

We continue to optimize these backend services and, in particular, we are doing so in a way that will affect the account history feature of the mobile app and website. This may result in a delay of transaction receipts appearing within the history feature, suggesting that transactions are not being accounted for even though Stars and Rewards are being allocated accurately.

Customers can be assured that we do have a record of all transactions and this delay will significantly reduce as we begin the final transition to the new Starbucks Rewards platform.

If customers see any additional errors, please call our Customer Care Center (800-782-7282).

UPDATE 11:58 AM PT 4/13/2016

As teams continue to make the necessary adjustments to ensure the best experience, and maintain backend platform stability, customers who continue to see any errors should please call our Customer Care Center (800-782-7282), so that we can help work through any outstanding questions. 

Customers should also be reassured that all earned Stars and Rewards will populate in their account upon transition to the new Starbucks Rewards platform.

For customers taking advantage of the in-store Gold promotion, when Green level customers make a transaction during our current promotion and jump to Gold status, their stars balance will reset to zero.

UPDATE 4:55 PM PT 4/12/2016 

After making adjustments to accommodate new volumes, we have increased  the backend platform stability. As a result, customers should now be able to experience the new Rewards platform without intermittent errors associated with log-in or Mobile Order and Pay functionality.

We continue to evaluate and make adjustments as necessary to maintain a great experience for our customers and ensure Stars and Rewards are visible and available to redeem.

As we near the completion of migration to the new Starbucks Rewards program, we are excited for customers to engage in the program and new app functionality.

UPDATE 1:12 PM PT 4/12/2016 

Early this morning, we began the transition to our new Starbucks Rewards program and mobile app user experience. 

As we have been migrating customers to the new Rewards platform, we have been making necessary adjustments to our backend platform to accommodate the new volumes and increase stability.

Therefore, as we are making these adjustments, it has created a slower experience and in some cases log-in errors, limited visibility to rewards and Star counts, as well as intermittent Mobile Order and Pay errors.

We sincerely apologize for any inconvenience and expect this will be resolved soon. Once the adjustments to the backend are complete, all customers’ transactions will be accounted for and all earned Stars and Rewards will be visible and allocated appropriately.