A Star Dash is an invite from Starbucks to earn something extra from Starbucks based upon earning stars within a specified time period. All of the Starbucks Star Dashes represent one-to-one marketing, meaning that they are tailored to the person who receives them. How many stars you need to earn in the dash is based upon your past transaction history.
Now is the time to sign up for the first Star Dash of 2014. Many customers will have received a Star Dash invite – if you use the Android phone app, you won’t see it there. You’ll need to log in your profile at Starbucks.com. Log in to your account and check what you have waiting there! You don’t want to miss any of your rewards either – I have heard all kinds of stories of people simply not realizing they had digital rewards. You must affirmatively track your own rewards. No barista will ever say, “Surprise, you have a reward!”
Back on the topic of the Star Dash, here’s what the first Star Dash of 2014 looked like for me:
If I earn 40 stars by February 11th, I will get 20 bonus stars. Please do not be alarmed in reading this. YOUR Star Dash may not look like this at all! Some people will get emails that tell them that they’ll earn bonus stars if they earn as few as 8, or 12 stars before the 11th of February. Some of the emails may show the rewards as a $5.00 and $10.00 gift card, depending on what yours looks like! Do not assume that your Star Dash will look like mine. I have heard that there is a lot of variation to this first Star Dash – yours is tailored to you!
You log into your Starbucks.com profile, and click to “Join Now.” One very confusing thing is that the second page, confirming that you’re in states that the stars must be earned before February 9th. Here’s the second page:
That’s a little confusing – February 9th or February 11th? I will email an official Starbucks spokesperson and try to find out more information about which of the two dates is correct.
One reader of this blog received this Star Dash:
As you can see, some people are doing a leisurely Star Walk, and others are on a serious Star Run. 😉 Which Star Dash did you receive?
If you are not part of MyStarbucksRewards then what you need to do is this: go to Starbucks and grab a gift card. Put at least $5 on that card. Register it online at Starbucks.com. You will get a free drink reward if you register a Starbucks card (your first card; this is not for existing MyStarbucksRewards members) before the 7th of February. And again, your valuable rewards will just expire on you and go to waste unless you take the time to track them. For those of you who do have a Gold Card, keep in mind that you are not required to use it. Use any card registered to your profile. Join now, and get a free drink!
So did you get a Star Dash, and what was your challenge, tailored to you? (Here’s one reader who has to get 25 stars to get his Dash reward.)
If you like browsing different card styles, or more on this topic, please click through the past Starbucks Card articles.
EDIT – JANUARY 28, 2014:
I have heard from an official Starbucks spokesperson:
“We will extend the Star Dash through the 11th.”
Now you know the right end date.
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I am sad that I received the earn 25 stars for $5 and 40 stars for $10. This would mean really ramping up my spending and there’s no way thats going to happen by Feb 9th!
Kinda irritated by that but can kinda se what SBUX is trying to do. A friend at work got the 4 stars for $5/7 stars for $10 hardly uses so they want him to get more engaged in using his card.
Not sure how I feel about this….
I got the email, but signed into my account, and there’s nothing there. no button to click… 🙁
My email said “earn 6 stars, get 10 bonus stars. Earn 12 stars, get 20 bonus stars”
Yay
Btw, I got gold in Dec 2013, expires Dec 2014.
If I hit 30 stars by march, when will my gold expire? Will it be march 2015 or Dec 2015??
I have participated in Star Dashes and 9 out of 10 times I never got my cash rewards as promised (or bonus stars). I have always had to chase them down to try and get what they have promised. Last time after several e-mails that weren’t responded to I won’t even bother with this Star “scam” any longer. Canada.
My Star Dash looks just like yours – 25 gets me 10 bonus, 40 gets me 20.
Earn 6 stars, get 10 bonus stars.
I got the same one as you & could hardly believe it when I read the requirements. After reading that there are so many variations… I’m not going to participate. I visit anywhere from 2-5 times a week, so I’d really have to go out of my way to reach the targets they gave me.
I also have to say that I’m a little annoyed at how they are “rewarding” my loyalty. With the promotion some received where they only need 7 stars to get 20 bonus stars, if they complete the dash, they’ll only need 3 more stars to reach the 30 for gold, right!? That means they get there with just 10 visits??
I get that they are trying to engage their less frequent customers, but I’m frustrated that I’m essentially punished for being a more frequent customer. I hope they reconsider this for future promotions.
Wow, what a popular post, Melody!
A family member got the ‘Earn 8 = 10 bonus; earn 12 = 20,’ but being the more frequent customer, I got the 14=10/20=20 bonus Dash offer.
I agree with other posters and understand trying to get people to be more active, but ideally there’d be a way to do so and not alienate the more frequent customer base.
@DadCooks – Earlier I was able to sign in on my PC via Firefox and the site had all the functionality, including the ‘dashboard.’
[Side note: As of today, I had three rewards that expire in February. I just checked online and via the app, and it now says I have zero. I hope it’s a glitch that will reset by tomorrow. Sigh.]
“The Star Dash is not showing up in Firefox on Windows”
@DadCooks – It worked for me. I was using Firefox w/ Windows when I signed up for the dash.
@Amy Kim – I agree with you. I realize Starbucks is a business and is there to serve the customers and make profit for it’s investors. However, something just feels weird to me about the way they incentivize me to ‘earn stars’. If I go to Starbucks a few times a week as a regular customer, I’m not going to radically change my behavior and eat my 3 meals a day there to earn stars. I haven’t fully embraced the loyalty card program. I like it, but it feels like something is missing to me. I’m not asking for tons of free stuff, as some customers on MSI have requested, but maybe a bit more wholesomeness? I’m already a loyal customer, I don’t need to be lured in by free drinks/food or asked to visit Starbucks more often. So…like a super-secret drink menu for gold members? Just my $5.00. :o)
@The Kwan – Whew, I thought I was having a moment with bad memory or bad luck! I, too, had my earned rewards disappear. It must be a temporary thing, since I don’t see any reference on the dashboard to when I used them.
@Melody: thanx much for getting their dates cleared up! The bigger they (Sbux ) get, seems the more mistakes. ?
on another note, I did just get one of those receipt surveys yesterday, always before with $1.00 off. I saw none of that on the paper but at the end there was a place for the usual ‘CUSTOMER CODE’: but, at the end of the survey, no code, just thanks. So, am guessing the little dollar off became too much for Sbux. Really???? amazing.
Under my account, I have the following till 2/11.
Earn 6 Stars and get 10 bonus Stars
Earn 10 Stars and get 20 bonus Stars
Wow, this is a popular post! My Star Dash is earn 6 stars, get 10 bonus or earn 10, get 20 bonus.
Im a little bit peeyoed. I got 10 stars for 10 bonus and 15 stars for 20. Hmph! Seeing people with the 6 10 12 20 makes me mad. Why different levels for different people? They are implicitly encouraging me to not go as much because if I do Ill get bad offers and deals.
I got the one you did – earn 25 stars get 10 bonus stars. There’s no way I’ll earn that. I assume it’s because I successfully completed the December star dash – 25 stars in 25 days earned 30 bonus stars. I bought waaay more Starbucks than usual just to get my 30 bonus stars in December 🙂 Now it’s coming back to haunt me. My brother got the earn 10 stars get 20 bonus stars deal. Wahhhh, no fair! Also, this morning my two earned rewards mysteriously disappeared, but now they’re back, so it must have been a temporary glitch.
My rewards earned were not showing yesterday either. However, I was able to redeem one. When I logged in just now, the rewards page says:
Don’t worry: your Stars are safe.
We’re sorry—something has gone wrong on our end and My Starbucks Rewards are unavailable right now. Please check back again soon!
As to those customer voice surveys… once upon a time you would get a free beverage for completing. Then it was changed to $1.00 off. I got one today and there is nothing to redeem for. I asked the barista what happened to the $1.00. He politely said it went away, but they still would value my feedback. Sorry big S, not going to be completing anymore mystarbucksvisits…
I’m pretty sure we all broke Starbucks rewards 😉 After 4 emails with 4 different responses (none of which sounded right) my 2 stars were found! Hopefully the glitches start to go away in the next day or two. Ha! My dash page worked okay in Firefox too, but I still get no emails from Starbucks just what I stumble on when I log in or into the app.
Update to my earlier post – my rewards did reappear (although a star from Monday is now missing…) on the site and the app.
FYI: Now on my dashboard, there’s a “Rewards+” sweepstakes to win one of 15 Starbucks T-shirts after completing tasks (update birthday and profile).
Fascinating to read the variances in Star Dash rewards… like so many others here, my Dash is fairly hardcore, and it frankly irritates me that my husband got a “sissy” Dash offer. He almost never shops at SBUX.
No way I’m playing at this game since I’m the more loyal customer. I feel penalized.
Not to mention, my 3 rewards have disappeared. I’m glad to see others are having the same problem, but right now I’m not very happy with Starbucks!!
I’m a gold member and I didn’t even get this e-mail!!! what the heck!!!!!
My email said “earn 4 stars, get 10 bonus stars. Earn 7 stars, get 20 bonus stars”. Not bad since I usually stop at least three times a week.
Earn eight stars, get ten bonus. But I’m still using my January free coffee tumbler for now
@Megan, I didn’t get the email either but your offer is possibly on your dashboard if you log in to your MSR account. @Eve360, that’s a heck of an offer you got! I could even do that one. Mine is more difficult and I couldn’t get it done so not even trying. Good luck to all who are!
@BeckyE (And whomever) – This thread is hard to keep up with the comments. It is stunning the variation in Star Leisurely Stroll offers the Star Marathon. One reader of this blog had posted on Facebook that hers was 25/50 stars! Holy moly! That is the top end – the 50 star bonus stars needed is the most I’ve heard of! Mine, at 25/40 is a lot!
Hey Everybody.
Pure and simple. This promotion is “Performance/Loyalty Punishment”
The ones of us that goto Starbucks everyday (sometimes even twice) got the hardest/highest Star levels to attain 40/50 Stars. And the people who barely go, got the easiest, 5/7 Stars. Just at my work here, 4 of us all received different levels and clearly, the person that went the least got the 7 Star challenge and the one that went the most(me) got the 40 star level.
Bottom Line…..we are all “Starbucks Gold Card Members”. We ALL should receive the exact same challenge level of Stars, PERIOD!!! As I advised, this is clearly LOYALTY PUNISHMENT for those of us that frequent Starbucks often. Think about it, the ones of us that got the 40/50 Star level… basically Starbucks is saying to us….”Hey guys/gals, thanks for being really awesome customers and spending lots of your hard earned money. I’ll tell you what, I’ll reward you with a $10 eCard but your going to have to spend $80 in coffee to get it (40 coffees at $2) instead of $14″ ($2 x 7)”.
I’ve written to Starbucks and have told them how disappointed I am with this promotion and how they have treated their Gold Card Reward Members.
I got the 6/10 or 10/20. Anyone know when the promo officially started so I can count my stars? Some of the offers seem ridiculous……25 and up number of stars earned to get bonus stars? 25 trips to Starbucks in the next 12 days? Crazy.
JUST now got my dash… 4/10 stars & 7/20 stars not too shabby! There were already 3 gold stars before I hit the OK button? Also shows me earning the visited a starbucks on New Years Day badge… today the 30th?? I love this program, but its kinda glitchy as I am learning ;o/
I don’t get it. Starbucks used to always send me bonus star offers and random free drink offers, but now I don’t receive anything. This past December, I received several offers. This bothers me because I can not take part in anything this year so far.
I got the dash for stars offer, accepted it and now I can find no record of ever getting it. is this normal? how do I know if I actually am getting credit for the stars that I have accumulated since the dash started?
Well, I never received an e-mail, and its not showing up in FF or IE. I am a little po’d about this. Everyone should at least get a chance!
@all who didn’t get emails: I did not receive the Dash email either…in fact I stopped getting emails from Starbucks at the end of Nov. No idea why! The Dash was on my account log in homepage (from web, not app)
@Rachel O: I believe your Gold anniv date stays your anniv date until you don’t hit your 30 stars. So it would still be Dec.
Mine has been January for years now, and I know I hit my 30 stars within about a month or 2.
Never was able to sign up even after contacting customer service (and getting their lame response). Oh well
There is one thing bothering me about all the Star Dash promotions. I get the email or notice in my account usually mid or late in the day of the day it begins. I wish the notification was available after midnight the day of, so that you can at least get a star for an early purchase if you’re an early riser. I always lose out on the first star because I am notified later than sooner when it matters. Starbucks opens at 5am here. It does no good to get the notification after your visit that day. An even better idea would be…..Why can’t they allow you to enter it a couple of days before the Dash actually starts? That way it gives people time, and an opportunity to get their star(s) the day it begins, instead of the following day?
@Hayley – I’d guess your email provider has decided not to deliver those to you. Perhaps you could try changing your MSR account to another email to see if you start getting them again.
@Chgo. – I really think technology is not their strong suit. They keep trying…..and failing IMHO. I should not get an email for a promotion 1-2 days AFTER it posts in my account. That’s ridiculous.
As for the Star Dash, I got the 14 for 10/20 for 20 offer. There’s no chance of me earning that. I think they reached a little too far this time, especially is they’re feeling the pinch in January because of all the espresso/brewed coffee tumblers they sold in December. They needed to make these more attainable for the average customer.
Yeah. Well it’s gonna backfire for them. Fact is loyaly programs work. I love the coffee, but it is the gold card and refill tumbler type stuff that drew me in daily. I too completed the Dec dash. Now I have an offer of 25 or 40 stars before Feb 11th. That’s 25 purchases? 11 days? Bar is set too high for too low reward. I would have made sure not to miss a day if 10 stars needed in 10 days. I did not miss a day with my tumbler. For now, they have no hook! I am likely to fall out of the pattern of “my daily coffee!”
@Snow White – Technology is definitely not a strong point. That weakness is unacceptable in today’s world, especially from a major corporation like Starbucks. They want people to register cards and become Gold members. They manage to use technology well to take your money and deduct it from your account very well, but when it come to them doing their part for customers with rewarding them for loyalty, they keep screwing that part up. It’s always funny how companies never drop the ball where it benefits them, but seem to fumble often when it benefits the customer.
Since we are on the subject of failed technology. Look to msi as a fine example of using technology for a website that has become a failure when it comes to control or lack of it. The inmates are running the asylum. I finally wised up and realized that they should be ashamed to have such a website where they choose to not only fail to control it, but also fail to contribute much regarding interaction with the ideas. People with lives, families and jobs don’t have the time to troll on a website, but it seems so many people om msi have made msi their life. Too each his own I guess, but msi is a failure regarding technology used to interact with your customers. IMHO – It’s time to abandon msi. I know it’s going to hurt certain people, but they will have to find something better to do with their lives everyday.
I’m irritated. As a “loyal” customer, purchasing often… My Dash Offer: 18 drinks get 10 stars… 25 drinks get 20 !! yea, right : crazy!!! So, I logged onto my Mom’s account: 6 gets 10 and 10 get 20 … what?! SO unfair! This is what I really dislike about all these stores tracking us & making “personalized” offers… it’s no longer a fair game. It should be the same for all : How does this not count as some form of discrimination ” you got $1 off your food today; but I didn’t”.
@Mark – I think that your stars fill in from the time they announced the dash? So if you register, it’s all your stars from the 28th to 11th. Which you’re right about one thing, that is a huge marathon, and not attainable for many. My dash is 40 stars, and I’m questioning whether I’ll get there. Yesterday I only made one single trip to Starbucks, and bought one drink. The original intent was to have this dash end on the 9th so you’re right – that’s a crazy amount of visits! Making the dash “personalized” does kind of create much higher hurdles for some race participants to jump. Some people in this dash got a handicap and others didn’t.
I got earn 4 get 10 and earn 7 get 20- I’m newer to the rewards program and don’t get a drink everyday. Maybe they base it off of your normal buying pattern, busy trying to slightly increase your normal spending? Just a thought.
No mystery here — if you already make a high volume of purchases, Starbucks has less incentive to get you in the door than someone who buys less often. I registered a card for my girlfriend while she was out of the country for 18 months, and “surprise!” — as my regular card usage went to zero, I started receiving better offers. Just get a card for a spouse/friend/significant other… It will take some time to hit gold, but as your old usage drops off you will get more lucrative targeted offers.
I’m Gold and have been since April 2013, and I didn’t get a notification of the Star Dash, but my friend who became Gold after me did. I’m not sure whether it’s just a matter of time before I am notified or I’m just not included in this. I’ll email corporate to see what’s going on.
Hi everyone! My dash is: Earn 8 get 10 bonus / Earn 12 get 20 bonus. I typically drink passion tea or a Blonde roast so it’s not a lot of $$$, thankfully. Also, not sure if everyone knows, but I had a free reward and was able to use it on a new $7 salad (they’re new here in Oklahoma). I’ll take that since I’m only spending about $2 a day (I get a Sbux 5 days/week usually).
Anyways, I can see how it would be frustrating to be a loyal customer and have to earn 20+ stars. 🙁
Side note: lets say I go in and buy myself a coffee and then 2 other drinks. Do I only get one star? I’m still relatively new to the rewards 🙂
Oddly enough, I got the 4/10 7/20 dash even though I’m a gold member and I visit starbucks frequently. Needless to say, I’ve already completed the dash, and am now awaiting my bonus stars.
I got the 6/10 10/20 dash. I am a gold card holder but my bux trips have been very infrequent lately. (Perhaps 1-2x/ month). Since signing up for the dash I’ve been to starbucks more times than in the past 3 months combined! So their marketing skills have indeed worked on me! Oh human behavior…
I got Earn 4 Stars and get 10 Bonus Stars…and Earn 7 stars and get 20 Bonus Stars by February 11.
@Paula – yes, one star per transaction, regardless of the number of items purchased.
People do have the partners (employees) ring items up separately, but hopefully not when it’s busy.
how do you check how many you have toward the goal??? Assuming from your blog it is extended to Feb 11th???
@Susan Bailey: just check into your Starbucks account…. where it shows your # of stars & rewards….it should show right on one of those pages all the little stars and whether they’re filled in or not…. and when you’ve reached whatever appropriate #, there’s a message that you’ll be sent the bonus stars (or whatever)..within so many days. Sorry so not exactly accurate but it should be all there on your MSR page. Hope this helps. I’m sure someone will come on and make this even more clear!
I received a “Earn 4 stars, get 10 bonus stars or earn 7 stars, get 20 bonus stars”. From seeing everyone else’s Star Dash offers on this site and others, I know that I’m one of the lucky ones.
Good luck to everyone earning stars!
I just have to earn 6 stars to get 10 bonus stars amd earn 10 stars to get 20 bonus stars…. 🙂 so excited…l