I’m not a coffee drinker and therefore have never really paid any attention to Starbucks. At airports there is always a pretty lengthy line at Starbucks in the morning so I can appreciate people that do enjoy coffee and especially Starbucks coffee.

I knew that Starbucks had a loyalty program but had no real reason to ever join it until Gary posted some free Starbucks codes that he had seen on Dans Deals. I figured that it can never hurt to sign up for a lot of loyalty programs especially when these programs will reward you with something free in your birthday month.

Gary then posted a deal to get ten more free stars (five of which worked for me) and so I was now up to 20 stars without actually purchasing anything.

Incredibly, there were opportunities to pick up two more free stars and now being at 22 stars, Gold level was within reach though logically it makes no sense but at this point I was obsessed with hitting Gold level.

At Gold level, you receive:

* Free Drink or Food Reward Ever 12 Stars
* Personalized Gold Card
* Exclusive Offers Just for You
* A free drink or treat reward and 15% off StarbucksStore.com for your birthday
* Free Refills on Brewed or Iced Coffee and Tea

There’s something about hitting a new loyalty level regardless of the program. Similar to the time when I hit Staples Premier level by buying Free After Rebate items. I received a shiny new card in the mail.

Back to Starbucks – Groupon had a $10 gift card for $5 deal which I purchased and now had $10 to try and earn some stars so I purchased a hot chocolate one day and then some baked goods another day and was slowly inching up towards Gold status.

I then stumbled upon a perpetual Star creating machine that someone shared with me that is simple and brilliant. I won’t share it in this post so as not to kill it, but I will private message you via Twitter if you want to know – @questformiles

Therefore I earned the last 6 stars and just earned Gold status!

I’m very proud of adding Starbucks Gold status to my arsenal of various loyalty programs though as I’ve mentioned not sure why I even bothered!