A few years ago, I didn't like Starbucks cos you know, overpriced coffee and at the same time I hate that the people there are mostly noisy and the place is usually packed with people. I ate my words tho and I'm now regularly taking my daily dose of overpriced too-much-sugar coffee.
In Bangkok, there's like Starbucks everywhere and of course my spoiled little ass was happy :D. I had to go there and have @acidyo taste my favorite coffee (White Chocolate Mocha) to which it became his favorite coffee too lol. Now he asks me to order Starbucks almost everyday cos of it. I turned him into a monster.
I had my name written in Thai here as the barista probably knew (I mean I think it was obvious) that I'm a tourist. I usually say my name is "Bianca" cos cba explaining the spelling or whatever but I'm not sure what the barista wrote there lol.
Back in the Philippines, I have my own Starbucks card to earn some stars and be able to claim free drinks once I've accumulated enough. I was gonna use it in Thailand too but they said I can't use my PH card so I availed one specifically for Thailand since I thought the mechanics would be the same. Man I was wrong.
In order for you to claim a free drink in the Philippines, all you had to have is a card (which is free registration and you only have to load money into it) and 125 stars. You can earn 1 star per 25 pesos spent - so in a few cups of coffee you'll be able to claim your free drink right away.
In Thailand, you start at the Green level which doesn't allow you to earn the stars for claiming yet. You need to be a Gold level user to be able to earn stars for it. And... to be able to be at the Gold level, you had to earn 300 stars first - after that you need to earn another 120 stars for a free drink.
That's really a lot of cups to spend just to be able to claim a free drink and compared to the Philippines, it was actually more expensive in Thailand. In one month of using the card, I was only able to get to the gold level with a few stars and not able to earn a free drink at all. :( 🤣
Oh, and I love their stuff there. They have waaay nicer bags and cups and tumblrs than in my country. I bought 2 teddy bears as a souvenir. :D