As Starbucks redefines loyalty, will some regulars take flight?

If Starbucks customers are lucky, the revamp of its loyalty program that has some up in arms will be the only cue it takes from the airline industry.

There would seem little appetite to pay a lid fee, a surcharge for that paper sleeve thing that keeps you from burning your hand on the cup or a premium to bypass the communal carafe of milk.

Undeterred by the complaints Delta, United and American heard when they overhauled their frequent flier programs to reward dollars spent over miles flown, Starbucks has announced it plans to pay back customers on the basis of how much they spend rather than how often they visit.

Starbucks said this is a change - touted on its website as “more stars, more things to love” - that customers enrolled in the Starbucks Rewards program requested.

Just betting those are customers who order fancy drinks and/or something to munch on, not people who consider this the one treat they give themselves and tend to order a simple coffee.

Also, it’s a fair guess they didn’t anticipate the company’s new math en route to free food or drink.

Beginning in April, Starbucks customers in the United States, Canada and Puerto Rico will no longer reach gold status with 30 stars or 30 transactions, and then score free food with 12 stars.

Instead, with two stars awarded for each dollar spent, it will take 300 stars to get to gold and 125 stars for gold members to get freebies.

Accepting the company’s estimate that the typical customer spends about $5 per visit, that’s still about 30 visits to get gold but roughly 12.5 visits to get a bonus.

For those who spend closer to $3 or $4 per visit - much like people who only travel a few times a year but devote themselves to a single carrier in hopes of eventually scoring a free trip - it’s a lot worse, and they have roundly complained about it on social media.

Let’s face it, if this is one of the few daily luxuries you allow yourself, you may look forward to that freebie all the more.

Then again, if you’re tagged to pick up coffee for the office, you’re golden.

If it means anything, Starbucks is doing what it can to ensure customers hit their benchmarks faster. Whether or not anyone has noticed, the company has managed to up its prices a little here and there despite the commodity price of coffee slipping around 45 percent from a peak in October 2014.

Coffee is just a small part of the overall Starbucks experience and the beans account for only about 10 percent to 20 percent of its overall costs, depending on who you ask. Real estate, equipment, wages, benefits, marketing aren’t cheap.

For shareholders, margins and revenue matter more than volume, and the bottom line on all of this is that Starbucks is free to define and reward its best customers any way it wishes.

After all, the point of this loyalty exercise is to drum up more sales at its own stores, its Teavana stores, even of its branded products at grocery stores.

So it’s going to dangle special offers such as monthly double-star days to lure visitors when business might otherwise be a bit slow.

It’s also streamlining its membership levels from three to two, giving some benefits for customers who simply download the loyalty app, letting the company mine their data and pitch them on stopping by when near a store.

But if thriftier loyalists who expected to reach the gold level with 30 visits now find it takes 40 or more, they have every right to reconsider their dedication, as Starbucks clearly has reconsidered its dedication to them.

In the eyes of the number crunchers at Starbucks, you are what you spend, and they have already doubtlessly accounted for the possibility some of those less lucrative regulars will take flight elsewhere. Just like the airlines.

Phil Rosenthal is a business columnist for the Chicago Tribune. Readers may send him email at philrosenthal@chicagotribune.com.