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You can get 7,500 American Airlines miles for test driving any new Cadillac, and you might not even have to do the 10 minute test drive.
From the promo page:
Right now, AAdvantage® members can earn 7,500 AAdvantage miles when you test drive any Cadillac* vehicle, including the striking 2015 CTS sedan with available adaptive cruise control and available OnStar 4G LTE with Wi-Fi®**. The available Wi-Fi® hotspot works inside your CTS and up to 50 feet away as long as your vehicle is on, while the 4G LTE allows you to use your laptop or tablet as a mobile office with a reliable connection.
Contact a Cadillac Concierge today at 844-469-2234 to schedule an appointment and participate in this exclusive limited time offer. Please allow 4-6 weeks to receive your AAdvantage miles.
*At participating dealers only. Must have an AAdvantage account and be 21 years or older with a valid U.S. driver’s license. Employees of General Motors are not eligible. Retail value: $221.00. Test drive lasts approximately 10 minutes. Offer valid while supplies last. Limit one test drive per person. Allow 4-6 weeks for miles to be awarded after confirmation that test drive has been completed. Offer is nontransferable, nonnegotiable and not redeemable for cash.
I value 7,500 American Airlines miles at about $133. If the test drive takes “10 minutes” and registering and driving to/from the dealer adds up to an hour total, that’s quite a return on my time.
- How can you avoid the test drive and high pressured sales pitch and still get the miles?
- What is this “Retail value: $221” nonsense? Are you going to get taxes on the miles?
- Why should you NOT call to sign up for this promotion right now?
Do You Even Have to Take the Test Drive?
Points with a Crew reports having done 7-8 similar test drives in exchange for cash, and he says he’s only had to actually drive one of the cars.
They usually would ask a few questions, like if I was in the market for a new car. I’d say “not really”, and then they go in the back and come back after 5-10 minutes with my validated postcard.
I never felt any kind of sales pressure, and only once (out of 7-8 times I’ve done this) did I even have to drive a car. I think most of the salesmen appreciated my not wasting their time, so they could focus on people that were actually interested in cars.
If you can even get out of the test drive, I really see no downside to picking up these 7,500 miles. Report in the comments whether you’ve had similar success getting the reward without even having to drive a car on similar promos in the past.
(I want to take the test drive. I’ve never been to a car dealership and want to see what the process is like in case I ever buy a new car.)
Will You Get Taxes for $221 Worth of Miles?
I’m not a tax professional. See a tax professional for tax advice.
American Airlines lists the value of the miles at $221, so they will not 1099 us for the miles, since that threshold is $600.
I consider these miles taxable income, but I don’t consider the value to be $221. Miles earned from credit cards are a rebate on purchases, not taxable income.
Don’t Call Right Now
Yesterday people were reporting long hold times in this View from the Wing comment thread when calling 844-469-2234 to schedule a test drive.
Perhaps this issue has been resolved, and you can get through now without a wait to schedule a test drive. If there is a hold time:
- Wait a few days until the hoopla has died down.
- Use GetHuman for a callback from Cadillac as Gary suggests.
- Use Cadillac.com chat as Jean suggests. (“i was on hold for quite a bit, with a phone battery slowly dying I logged onto Cadillac.com and hit the “chat” button. While it took a while back and forth with the live Cadillac agent, I’m all signed up at my local Caddy dealership next Monday. Easy Peasy.”)
Bottom Line
If you live within a half hour of a Cadillac dealership, I think this is a promo you should participate in. I value 7,500 American Airlines miles at $133, though I expect my valuation to drop in 2015 when American Airlines and US Airways combine their frequent flyer programs and release a new award chart.
Just getting started in the world of points and miles? The Chase Sapphire Preferred is the best card for you to start with.
With a bonus of 60,000 points after $4,000 spend in the first 3 months, 5x points on travel booked through the Chase Travel Portal and 3x points on restaurants, streaming services, and online groceries (excluding Target, Walmart, and wholesale clubs), this card truly cannot be beat for getting started!
Editorial Disclaimer: The editorial content is not provided or commissioned by the credit card issuers. Opinions expressed here are the author’s alone, not those of the credit card issuers, and have not been reviewed, approved or otherwise endorsed by the credit card issuers.
The comments section below is not provided or commissioned by the bank advertiser. Responses have not been reviewed, approved, or otherwise endorsed by the bank advertiser. It is not the bank advertiser’s responsibility to ensure all questions are answered.
Chat option works great, thanks!
Take the advice to have a call back…
I waited for close to 39 min on hold (on my vacation) getting a “someone will be with you” till
I finally hung up….good method of screening potential buyers, except for the fact that those with that much time on their hands are probably not the ones that can afford to buy…..
As a data point, I just called at 12:30PM CST on Friday afternoon. I was only on hold for nine minutes. Good luck everyone.
Just set up a test drive on the website through Cadillac Chat.
Took 15 minutes start to finish
Thanks for the report!
Please only show my first name in comment. thanks.
After waiting on line for 10 minutes with no response, I hung up and just called the dealership direct and they gave me an appointment and said I will get the miles. They did ask for my AA number.
Thanks for sharing this good deal and for all your posts.
AA “may” send you a 1099 but they don’t “have” to. At $600+ they must. I’ve had 1099s for less than $600.
I set up my test drive with a local Cadillac dealership with using the chat option on the website & it took 5 minutes. I also used the “get human call back” option & received a call 60 minutes later but already had an appt. At the dealership, I told the salesperson I was there mainly because of the AA-Cadillac promotion. He told me to sit in any car that I wanted & then asked me “How Was My Drive?” I said “Great” & then he completed my profile & said miles would be there in 4-6 weeks…
I didn’t have to do the test drive, he seemed tired of all the “AA people”
[…] offered this promotion to any AAdvantage member who could get themselves to a participating dealer back in October 2014. The difference this time is that the promotion is targeted. You need an invitation code in […]