The day has some. This week, Starbucks rolled out the previously announced updates to its Rewards program.
When I updated my app on Tuesday, I was disappointed to see that Starbucks had placed me in the Green status tier. While I wasn’t sure I’d qualify for Gold, I thought I’d at least be close. Instead, I was informed that I’d need to earn 500 fresh Stars in order to get upgraded. That was until I found a clever hack.
Thanks to a comment on Doctor of Credit, I learned that I could “buy” my way to Gold status. The key? Marriott Bonvoy Points.
Back in 2024, Starbucks and Marriott formed a partnership that resulted in a few promotions. Among them was the ability to turn Bonvoy points into Starbucks Stars. These transfers are done at. a rate of 10:1, so 1,000 Bonvoy points become 100 Stars.
With that in mind, it turns out that you can simply transfer 5,000 Bonvoy points to Starbucks to unlock instant Gold Status! I’ll admit that I was skeptical about this when I saw the comment, but I decided to give it a shot anyway. Sure enough, within seconds, I was alerted to my upgrade.
So why do I even care about Gold status? Well, for one, I now don’t have to worry about my earned Stars expiring. Under the previous system, Stars could go away six months after they were earned, while the new system requires Green members to make purchases in order to extend expiration. But not worrying about expiration at all is certainly easier.
On top of that, Gold members earn 20% more Stars per dollar spent — 1.2x versus 1x. There are some other small perks as well (including a full week to redeem your Birthday Drink instead of a day), but these were the ones I was most excited about.
Now let’s talk about cost. The Points Guy values Bonvoy points at 0.8¢ each. With that valuation, this instant upgrade costs you about $40. However, the 500 Stars you get in the process are worth up to $26 — so, really, it may only be a $14 “fee.”
Meanwhile, if you were to get Gold status purely through purchases at the 1x Stars earning rate, you’d need to spend $500. Because of this, I actually don’t think the Marriott route is a bad deal. That said, if you were pursuing status through normal means, I’d recommend targeting bonus Stars days and other promotions to bring that $500 figure down.
Regardless of whether or not this upgrade was actually worth it, I am fascinated by the existence of this hack. Truth be told, I’m also far more likely to use Starbucks Stars than Marriott Bonvoy points these days, so I won’t miss my 5,000 points. Of course, I can’t speak to how long this trick will be available or whether the transfer rate will be adjusted, so you may want to act fast if you’re interested.