Starbucks to change rewards program, making it harder to earn free items - MassLive.com

Getting a free drink at Starbucks might cost you extra money.

To get free rewards from the store, reward members need to trade in their points or "stars" for items. Members earn points when they make a purchase from the Starbucks menu.

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One dollar spent equals two stars when using a Starbucks card. For credit cards or other payment, members get one star per dollar spent.

As of now, members need 50 stars to get a hot or iced coffee or tea, a bakery item or a packaged snack or to-go cup. They need 150 for a latte and hot breakfast item and 200 for a salad, lunch sandwich or protein box.

However, those numbers are about to change.

Starbucks rewards announced Wednesday that starting on Feb. 13, reward members will need 100 stars or points to get a cup of hot or iced coffee or tea, a bakery item or a packaged snack or to-go cup.

Reward members will need 200 stars to get a free latte, Frappuccino or hot breakfast item. They'll also need 300 stars for a salad, lunch sandwich, protein box or packaged coffee.

The increase of stars needed to get the item for free means customers will need to be spending more on their Starbucks orders.

More information about the change to rewards can be found here.

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The new change isn't going over well for reward members.

"Starbucks changing their rewards system yet again and requiring 200 stars for a free drink instead of 150 is making me very upset," one Twitter user wrote.

The dissatisfaction follows suit with Dunkin' reward members when the chain changed their program.

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Dunkin' switched its DD Perks program to Dunkin' Rewards early in October. Notable changes included customers earning points in any way that they pay with 10 points given for evert $1 spent, compared to 5 points with DD Perks previously, and reward being able to be redeemed starting at 150 points, or $15 spent, compared to 200 previously.

"Now instead of spending $40 to get a free drink from Dunkin, I have to spend about $60-$70 with the new app/rewards update?" another Twitter user said. "I know inflation has been bad but $20-$30 more for a free drink? Y'all gotta be joking. Please say it's a joke," they continued.

With inflation continuing to drive prices up, customers have been turning to reward programs like Starbucks, which have also helped businesses grow digital sales, Axios reported. The program had 28.7 million members in the U.S., up 16% year-over-year.

Despite the increase of reward members, Starbucks told Axios in a statement, "we occasionally need to make changes to ensure the long-term sustainability of the Starbucks Rewards program and to meet the changing needs of our members."