About Coke ON Pass (April 2023)

Summary

I decided to try out and evaluate whether the subscription service called Coke ON Pass, which can be used at Coca-Cola vending machines, is worth using.
Also, since I have a note account, I wanted to try writing an article at least once.

Conclusion

It is an obvious conclusion, but it is quite a good deal if you use vending machines every day.
For those who carry water bottles to save money, this might not even be an option, but I can definitely recommend it to those who have a habit of drinking coffee during their commute to take a break.
Depending on the campaigns being held at the same time, it is sometimes possible to get drinks at effectively half price, so it is also recommended for those who want a little treat.

What is Coke ON Pass?

Coke ON Pass is a subscription service available on Coke ON, similar to a monthly pass that allows you to get drinks for a fixed price.

There are two plans: the "Otokupuran MAX" which allows you to exchange one drink per day, and the "Otokupuran 20" which allows up to 20 drinks per month. This time, I tried the "Otokupuran 20".
For information on Coke ON, which is the premise of this discussion, please refer to the following.

Verification Experiment

To see if I should continue subscribing to the Coke ON Pass as a subscription service, I actually signed up and tested it from April 2, 2023, to April 30, 2023.

Prerequisites

• Use the "Otokupuran 20" out of the two available subscription plans (a trial plan limited to 20 drinks per month, 1 drink per day, and purchase period is only from the 1st to the 9th of each month)

• Have not used Coke ON Pass before and can use the first-time bonus

• Use the campaign code (500 yen off) limited to April 2023

• Coke ON always runs various campaigns, and during this period, I used it in conjunction with the following campaigns

  • Dragon Quest Walk Collaboration (until 4/2)

  • New Life Campaign (until 4/9)

  • Cashless Double Stamp Campaign (until 4/30)

  • Costa Campaign (4/3 to 5/7)

• Payment for Coke ON itself is made using a Rakuten Card via Rakuten Pay

• There are multiple Coke ON-compatible vending machines on my commute route, and there is also a compatible vending machine within a 10-minute walk from my home, so I can access it even on weekends when I am not commuting by taking a walk

Purchase history

The drinks purchased from Coca-Cola vending machines in April are as follows.

1. Exchanges via Coke ON Pass: 20 bottles

2. Used drink tickets acquired in the past: 5 bottles

3. Purchases via Rakuten Pay: 3 bottles

A total of 28 drinks were obtained in April.
Basically, I used it to drink Costa Coffee on my way to work every morning.
The 20-bottle quota for Coke ON Pass was used up by 4/23. After that, I used drink tickets that I had acquired for free in the past and were about to expire.
Purchases via Rakuten Pay include purchases made before introducing Coke ON Pass, a second drink purchased while out and about, and one regular purchase at the end of the month.

Regarding balance

The balance related to Coke ON in April was as follows.

The final unit price per drink in April was 82 yen.
In addition to this, I have obtained a total of 13 free drink tickets mainly through the Costa campaign. (Since the number obtained is extraordinary, it was excluded from the unit price calculation. This will be described later.)
If we re-evaluate it as a fixed expense without considering the 500 yen campaign discount or the discount from using tickets I already possessed, the cost is 2792 yen for 23 drinks, so the drink unit price is 121 yen.
Since the list price of a vending machine without using Coke ON is 180 yen, I have been able to keep the cost to about 2/3.
Also, at this unit price, it is not much different from buying plastic bottled drinks at a supermarket (although it is about 10% higher), so I think it is a unit price that is easy to use for daily life. Costa Coffee can be 138 yen even if you buy it at a supermarket.

Costa Campaign

The Costa campaign is a campaign where if you buy Costa Coffee (including exchanges via Coke ON Pass), you can win a drink ticket to exchange for Costa Coffee by lottery, with a total of 300,000 winners. The winning rate of this lottery is abnormally high.
There were 20 opportunities to enter the lottery during the period, and surprisingly, I won 11 times, meaning I got a "win, one more bottle" result every other time. This is just crazy.
If you ask if I just happened to have great luck, it doesn't seem to be the case, as there were similar campaigns in December and February, and I had a track record of winning every other time then as well. Other campaigns, such as the "Georgia" x "Urusei Yatsura" campaign held from January to March, had a winning rate of less than 10% based on my personal track record (closer to 5%), so the Costa campaign is clearly strange.

I can speculate that this is simply because there are fewer participants. Since the fact that "300,000 people will win a drink ticket" does not change for any campaign, I think it's a matter of if the population is small, you'll win. Well, buying coffee for 180 yen at a vending machine would be unthinkable based on my previous sense, and I guess the Costa brand hasn't penetrated, like, at least it should be 120 or 130 yen, right?
Actually, if you use the subscription, it's under 120 yen per bottle, so that's not really the case, but it seems to be a story where people who know can buy it a little (?) more cheaply.

Impressions

Subscription services are often no longer used due to changes in environment and lifestyle habits, and it is easy to forget about them later and end up only paying for them, so I was hesitant to try a new subscription. However, I judged that Coke ON Pass has significant benefits, so I intend to continue using it for a while.
Coffee on a winter morning is delicious, after all.
(What I will do when the hot season comes is up to the future drink lineup.)

Points of concern

• The "Value Plan 20" I subscribed to this time is a trial plan and is positioned as being offered for a limited time, but until when will it be offered?

• Regarding the "Value Plan MAX", I might have a bit too much if I drink one every day (including weekends) in the current season, but is it worth trying when the hot season comes? I would like to consider it separately.

• I've been winning too many Costa campaigns, but I wonder if they will continue to run campaigns at a pace of once every two months.

• I've won over 10 Costa Coffee tickets, but they expire on 6/30. Can I use them all up? Also, Costa Coffee is served hot, so wouldn't it be tough to drink it hot in June?

• Actually, including carryovers from the past, I have 23 drink tickets expiring by 6/30. If I don't pause my subscription in June, won't it turn into a drink festival?

• In the first place, ticket usage is often excluded from campaigns, so I don't feel like actively using them, and they basically just pile up, so I need to be conscious about using them up effectively.

In conclusion

I spent about two and a half hours during Golden Week creating my first note article, but what did you think? If by some chance you arrived at this article and read it, I hope you can make good use of Coke ON Pass and find a little bit of enrichment in your daily life.