Points, Miles, and Loyalty Programs: AMC Stubs Premiere

This is the first installment in what I hope will be on occasional series on various consumer loyalty and rewards programs. I follow a number of blogs on these topics and while I certainly do not anticipate competing with the folks who cover these programs full time, I hope to offer my own narratives as part of the conversation on these valuable consumer tools.

Naomi and I go to movies fairly frequently, probably our most frequent date option beyond a restaurant. I have been a fairly lackluster AMC Stubs Insider member for (as my account history tells me) three years, quite often not even bothering to scan my digital membership card to earn points, but only just two days ago, in advance of our latest movie date, decide to give AMC Stubs Premiere membership try.

There are four main benefits I see to the Premiere level over the Insider level, which are as follows in ascending order of their value to us:

1. Free size upgrades on popcorn and soda. Literally zero value to us, we hard pass on the salt and sugar overload and sneak in our own snacks!

2. Waived online ticketing fees. We almost always simply purchase tickets on arrival, but if we ever go to a highly popular movie at a highly popular showtime, it is nice to know we can get tickets advance, online, for no surcharge. Speaking of purchasing on arrival...

3. Priority lanes at box office (and concessions, but see #1). This would probably be the second most valuable benefit, simply for time saving at the theater. Not that either of us like getting into our seats to watch the pre-preview commercials, but I always prefer to get the "standing in line" part of the date behind me! Though of course, the first time we went after I upgraded to Premiere membership, this priority lane was unused...

My first time at an AMC after upgrading to Premiere membership and I was not able to experience the priority lane benefit...

4. Earn 100 points per dollar spent (not including taxes and fees), compared to 20 points per dollar. This is the most valuable benefit to Naomi and me as we will get to $5 rewards (earned every 5000 points) now five times faster. Over the course of a year we probably see about six movies, and with the ticket price at our closest AMC at $10.49, we will now get to two of those $5 rewards each year and halfway to the next one (compared to just halfway to one reward in a year).

Also, I was pleasantly surprised to find when I purchased the first tickets after upgrading my membership that I had a $5 reward posted to my account, so we already have brought our net cost of membership to $10.

Are you an AMC Stubs member at any level? There is also the A-List tier, have you experienced that and what do you think, of that or any other level?

Points, Miles, and Loyalty Programs: Starbucks Rewards

This is the first installment in what I hope will be on occasional series on various consumer loyalty and rewards programs. I follow a number of blogs on these topics and while I certainly do not anticipate competing with the folks who cover these programs full time, I hope to offer my own narratives as part of the conversation on these valuable consumer tools.

My Starbucks Gold Card (which I never physically use) indicates that I have been a Gold member since 2010 (my senior year of college). For most of the time since, I basically only went to Starbucks when it was a convenient place for a meeting with a friend or colleague or when, during my teaching years, I was gifted a Starbucks gift card and stopped on my way to or from somewhere else. But in the last year or so I have added some strategic additional visits.

In April 2016, Starbucks modified their loyalty program earning structure: every $1 in spend (not including sales tax) earns 2 stars. Upon reaching 125 stars, one earns a reward, which one can redeem for any menu item. (The redemption structure is changing later this month to group menu items into tiers with each tier requiring redemption of a different number of stars to redeem an item from it.) Around the same time, Starbucks began more frequent special star-earning promotions, everything from the basic monthly double star day, to bonus stars on particular menu items at particular times, to bonus stars for making multiple purchases in a given timeframe. I probably get an email from Starbucks with a special star-earning promotion once a week. I used to ignore them. No longer.

My argument is that one should always aim to earn more than 2 stars per $1 to get maximum value from the program. I probably take advantage of one out of every three special promotions. For context, my usual purchases are hardly ever basic coffee, either, except when in warm months I get an iced coffee. I go more for the food items and occasional fancy drink, both when paying cash and when redeeming rewards.

For example, two weeks ago there was a "Star Dash" promotion: visit two days in a row within the promotional period and earn 25 bonus stars, visit three days in a row and earn 50 total bonus stars, or visit four days in a row and earn 125 total bonus stars. 125, of course, is (for now) enough for any menu item, including the $8 protein boxes that make for a decent meal (especially on a day when I have concert duty and not time for a more robust dinner). A visit could be to purchase anything, from a tall coffee to a simple bakery item to a KIND bar (that I typically toss in my bag and forget about until I am digging at the bottom of my bag for something else two weeks later and rediscover it...). I spent a grand total of $9.95 over the four visits I made in the allotted timeframe, and now I will be able to grab one of those chicken wrap boxes, retailing for $7.95, when I have concert duty next Friday. That's an 80% return. Plus I have the base stars earned on the spend toward my next reward.

The math on the redemption side will change a bit when the new reward tiers come online next week, but my earning strategy should still be effective. Will be interesting to see what new special promotions are offered.