{"id":407,"date":"2015-12-30T00:09:22","date_gmt":"2015-12-30T00:09:22","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/thetravelingmillennial.com\/?p=407"},"modified":"2016-02-14T16:34:14","modified_gmt":"2016-02-14T16:34:14","slug":"want-a-starbucks-gold-card-and-airline-miles-yes","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/first2board.com\/thetravelingmillennial\/2015\/12\/30\/want-a-starbucks-gold-card-and-airline-miles-yes\/","title":{"rendered":"Want a Starbucks Gold Card and Airline Miles?  Yes."},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Groupon&#8217;s discounted Starbucks gift card and CardCash&#8217;s additional 5% discount\u00a0got me thinking, can a person game the Starbucks rewards program\u00a0similar to how we game the airline frequent flier programs? \u00a0Not quite, but we can get close.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Starbucks Gold card requirements<\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>You need 30 stars.<\/li>\n<li>You get one star for each purchase made with a registered Starbucks gift card.<\/li>\n<li>You get additional stars for making purchases on the Starbucks website or by buying certain Starbucks merchandise. \u00a0If you buy stuff on the website, don&#8217;t forget to use a <a href=\"http:\/\/thetravelingmillennial.com\/step-4-shopping-portals-and-dining-programs\/\">shopping portal <\/a>first.<\/li>\n<li>You can only earn two stars per day.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong>Get a Starbucks Gold card for under $50.<\/strong><\/p>\n<ol>\n<li>You need to make 30 purchases in a year to get the Starbucks Gold card (make sure each item is charged separately!). \u00a0For me that means 30 small black coffees. \u00a0I can buy each black coffee for about $2, so I&#8217;ll need to spend about $60 over the next year. \u00a0Starbucks will sometimes offer double stars on purchases, so realistically I&#8217;ll need to spend under $60.<\/li>\n<li>Here&#8217;s where the magic starts to happen. \u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.groupon.com\/coupons\/stores\/starbucksstore.com\">Buy a $15 Starbucks gift card from Groupon for $10<\/a>. \u00a0[this deal ends soon, very early in the morning on the 30th] \u00a0Make sure you make your purchase through a <a href=\"http:\/\/thetravelingmillennial.com\/step-4-shopping-portals-and-dining-programs\/\">shopping portal<\/a> to score an additional 3 miles (American) per dollar spent. \u00a0That&#8217;s 30 miles for very little work.<\/li>\n<li>You then need to buy $45 dollars worth of Starbucks gift cards from <a href=\"https:\/\/www.cardcash.com\/\" target=\"_blank\">Card Cash<\/a>. \u00a0Card Cash is awesome because it sells used gift cards at a pretty good discount. \u00a0With the promotional code <strong>ECODE5OFF<\/strong> you can buy electronic Starbucks gift cards for 11% off. \u00a0Your $45 dollar gift card\u00a0now costs roughly $40.<\/li>\n<li>Register one gift card with Starbucks and transfer the other gift card balances\u00a0to it. \u00a0When you register, sign up for the text updates. \u00a0Sometimes Starbucks sends out cool offers.<\/li>\n<li>Make your purchases within one calendar year. \u00a0If you buy multiple items in one trip, ask to pay for each item\u00a0separately.<\/li>\n<li>This plan will cost roughly $50 and will net you at least 30 airline miles.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n<p><strong>How to strategically use the Starbucks Gold card.<\/strong><\/p>\n<ol>\n<li><strong>Maximize your free drinks<\/strong>: for every 12 additional drinks that you buy, you&#8217;ll receive one FREE drink of ANY SIZE.<\/li>\n<li><strong>It&#8217;s your birthday<\/strong>: you receive a free drink on your birthday (see above)<\/li>\n<li><strong>Show off your personalized Starbucks Gold card<\/strong>: that&#8217;s right, it&#8217;s actually gold.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Free refills<\/strong>: enjoy free coffee and tea refills<\/li>\n<li><strong>15% off online<\/strong>: I think the online store is expensive but it&#8217;s reasonable if you combine this discount with cheap gift cards (<a href=\"http:\/\/www.cardcash.com\" target=\"_blank\">www.cardcash.com<\/a>)<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n<p>**make sure your local Starbucks is a &#8220;participating Starbucks&#8221;**<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Groupon&#8217;s discounted Starbucks gift card and CardCash&#8217;s additional 5% discount\u00a0got me thinking, can a person game the Starbucks rewards program\u00a0similar to how we game the airline frequent flier programs? \u00a0Not quite, but we can get close. Starbucks Gold card requirements You need 30 stars. You get one star for each purchase made with a registered Starbucks gift card. You get additional stars for making purchases on the Starbucks website or by buying certain Starbucks merchandise. \u00a0If you buy stuff on the website, don&#8217;t forget to use a shopping portal first. You can only earn two stars per day. Get a&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":96,"featured_media":408,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mi_skip_tracking":false,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_is_tweetstorm":false,"jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false}}},"categories":[31],"tags":[],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v19.13 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Want a Starbucks Gold Card and Airline Miles? 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You get additional stars for making purchases on the Starbucks website or by buying certain Starbucks merchandise. \u00a0If you buy stuff on the website, don&#8217;t forget to use a shopping portal first. You can only earn two stars per day. 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