I just (very briefly) became a DoorDasher to earn American AAdvantage redeemable miles and Loyalty Points, and I’ve gotta say, I kind of enjoyed the whole process. I first wrote about this promotion a couple of days ago, and now want to report back with my experience.
Earn AAdvantage Loyalty Points as a DoorDasher
With the American AAdvantage Loyalty Points system, you can earn points that qualify toward status in a variety of ways, ranging from flying, to credit card spending. There’s also the American AAdvantage eShopping portal, where you can earn both redeemable miles and Loyalty Points for purchases and other qualifying activity with a variety of companies.
So here’s a funny example of that. OMAAT reader Brandon shared with me how you can be rewarded through AAdvantage eShopping by becoming a DoorDash driver. You ordinarily earn 2,900 AAdvantage miles and Loyalty Points, while currently you can earn 5,900 AAdvantage miles and Loyalty Points.
Personally, I value AAdvantage miles at around 1.5 cents each, so the miles as such are worth nearly $90 to me, and that says nothing of the value of the Loyalty Points (Loyalty Points earned by any means count toward status challenges, like if you’re eligible for the current American & Hyatt status challenge).
Keep in mind that it potentially gets even better than that. With the AAdvantage Loyalty Point Rewards program, if you pass 100,000 Loyalty Points in a year, you receive a 30% bonus on AAdvantage eShopping transactions, meaning you could earn 7,670 Loyalty Points.
This promotion is only available for new DoorDash drivers, and you earn that reward after your first completed delivery. Reader reports suggest that these transactions don’t typically post correct automatically (which is kind of annoying), but following up with customer service usually gets that resolved.
My experience becoming a DoorDash driver
A couple of days ago, I asked if I should become a DoorDasher to take advantage of this promotion. Many of you encouraged me to do it, and I figured why not?
On Thursday, I completed the DoorDash application process. It took all of five minutes — I just had to provide some very basic personal details, and upload a copy of my ID. There’s a background check (which doesn’t impact your credit). While I’ve seen some people report that it can take up to a week to get approved, I was instantly cleared.
Then this morning, Ford and I loaded Miles and Jet (our toddler and infant) into the car, went to breakfast, went to the airport to plane spot, and then did what anyone would do to pass time with their kids — we DoorDashed!
Being a DoorDasher is really quite straightforward, and I found the app to be easy to use. We opened up the app, and within two minutes, received a request for a pretty easy delivery, with $6 of pay.
So we headed to a nearby bagel place to pick up an onion bagel with jalapeño cream cheese and a colada, and delivered it to a place around five minutes away. There was a bit of waiting involved, and I tried to provide good service, message the customer that I was waiting for her order, etc.
As an introvert, I was delighted to see that the person wanted the order left at her door, so I didn’t have to interact directly. I won’t share more screenshots of the whole experience, since obviously I want to respect the privacy of the customer, etc.
As someone who frequently orders from food delivery apps, I appreciated the opportunity to experience what it’s like “on the other side” of the app. So often we take the work of others for granted, especially when we don’t interact directly with them, and being able to experience what it’s like to provide that service for others is something I enjoyed.
For this delivery I earned $6 in cash, 5,900 AAdvantage miles (which I value at nearly $90), and 5,900 Loyalty Points (which are hard to put an exact value to). I’m not saying everyone should do this, but the whole process was quite easy, and it was a Saturday morning activity with our kids. During the delivery, Miles (our three-year-old) kept asking over and over what we were doing, and I tried to explain it to him, best I could.
An hour after returning home, he came up to me and said “papa, I want to DoorDash,” so I guess that means he enjoyed it?
Now, we’ll see how much I have to fight to actually earn the AAdvantage miles and Loyalty Points. Currently, my AAdvantage eShopping account shows DoorDash as a “recent store visit,” but not as a “recent transaction.”
Bottom line
At the moment, you can earn 5,900 American AAdvantage Loyalty Points and redeemable miles if you become a DoorDasher and complete your first delivery. It potentially gets even better than that, if you qualify for the 30% AAdvantage eShopping bonus.
I decided to give this a try, and the whole experience was about as pleasant as it could have been. Signing up took maybe five minutes, my background check came back immediately, and the actual delivery was relatively straightforward.
All-in-all, I’m happy I did it — the reward wasn’t half bad, I found it to be an interesting experience, and it was a way to entertain the family for some amount of time on a Saturday morning.
Any fellow AAdvantage-motivated DoorDashers out there? 😉
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