Pret’s coffee subscription is ruined – Here’s what you can do now

If you’re a regular coffee drinker or you’ve worked an office job quite literally anywhere in London since September 2020, there’s a good chance you’ll be aware of Pret a Manger’s popular coffee subscription.

The ubiquitous high street coffee chain’s ‘Club Pret’ subscription gives you access to up to five free Pret coffees a day for £30/mth. It does for now, anyway. The brand recently announced that the nature of its subscription will soon be changing. Pret a Manger’s website reads:

“From 3 September 2024, Club Pret is changing to 50% off up to 5 Barista-made drinks per day for £5 per month until 31 March 2025, then £10 per month from the first monthly payment date thereafter.”

Customers are about as furious as you’d expect, with some threatening to cancel their Club Pret subscription or to boycott the coffee chain.

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Let’s do the maths. On the current system, you would need to drink £30 worth of free coffees every month to get your money’s worth. In the local Pret near our office, a flat white will normally cost you £3.80, meaning you’d need to drink around eight a month to hit this £30 mark. You could do this in two days if you were determined enough, taking into account the five per day limit.

The maximum number of free flat whites you could possibly consume would be 155 a month assuming a month with 31 days. That’s a total monthly cost of £589, of which you only need to pay £30 with the current Pret subscription (so a £559 total saving).

When the plan changes in September, you’ll need to buy three half price flat whites (£1.90 each) to earn back your £5 monthly fee before you even start saving. And when this fee goes up to £10 next March, you’ll need to buy six flat whites a month to break even.

By next March, the maximum amount of money you’ll be able to save on half price flat whites will be £284.50/mth (taking into account the £10 fee), which is almost half of what you could save on the current “free coffee” system.

In short, loyal Club Pret members are going to be getting a bit of a raw deal from September – at least when compared to the current subscription terms.

So what are your options?

Alternative loyalty schemes

Don’t worry, I’m not going to do all the maths this time. There are a wealth of other high street coffee chains available and a lot of them also offer loyalty schemes. Here are a few of them and their perks:

Costa Coffee – Costa Club:

• Free to join
• Buy ten drinks (or five drinks if you use a reusable cup), and get one free
• Free cake on your birthday

Starbucks – Starbucks Rewards

• Free to join
• Collect stars to get a free coffee. Each pound spent is three stars, with 150 stars earning you a free drink (meaning you must spend £50 to qualify for a free drink)
• If you rack up 450 stars (£150), you’ll qualify for Gold Level. Gold Level members get extra shots of espresso, selected syrups and whipped cream for free. You also get a free drink on your birthday.

Cafe Nero – Loyalty Card

• Just a digital version of the paper loyalty card
• Buy nine coffees and get your 10th free

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The independents

The best coffee shops are always the independent ones and if you live in a big city, such as London, there are tons to choose from. What’s more, many of these offer loyalty cards of their own. So, if you have a favourite spot that you frequent, it’s well worth checking if this is something you can take advantage of.

Making your own coffee

Of course, the most obvious way to save money on coffee is by making it yourself. There are lots of great ways to do this. The De’Longhi Magnifica Evo One Touch, Dedica Style and Nespresso Vertuo Pop are all good value machines that we’ve reviewed in our best coffee machines roundup.

If you’d rather not invest in a coffee machine, there are lots of other ways to make great coffee at home, whether that be with a cafetiere, moka pot, aeropress or V60.