American and Cadillac are running a promotion where you can get 7500 AAdvantage miles for test driving a Cadillac at your local Cadillac dealer.
I was very excited about this promotion and signed up right away. I used the chat feature at cadillac.com, though I’ve been told that this no longer works, and you need to call in to 844-469-2234 to schedule your test drive.
Enter the haters
BigHabitat had a great rundown of the different blogs, and who was for or against this deal. Joining me on the “THIS IS AWESOME” side were BigHabitat, View from the Wing, Deals we like, Doctor of Credit, Miles To Memories, Points Traveler, and TaggingMiles.
On the naysayers side were: Hack My Trip, Million Mile Secrets, Points Guy, Milenomics, Trips With Tykes, Travel Blogger Buzz, and Are we There Yet.
As I said earlier, over the past few years, I’ve probably done close to 10 of these types of offers, and only once have I ever had to actually drive the car.
My test drive experience
My test drive was scheduled for Monday at 5:15. Living in a fairly major city, I had my choice of several different dealerships, and there is one that is located (sort of) on my way home from work.
I stopped by this afternoon, and thought I’d share my experience. I parked my car, and went into the dealership. It went a little something like this:
Receptionist: Hi – can I help you?
Me: I signed up for a test drive with a promotion
Receptionist: Oh – the American Airlines one?
Me: Yes
Salesman, who was sitting off to the side: Did you pre-register?
Me: Yes.
Salesman: I can take care of you
We walk back to his area / cubicle, and he sits down at his computer. He pulls up a website, and asks me my name. Pulls up my account on the website (I could see my name from the pre-registration)
Salesman: So are you interested in a car?
Me: Not really
Salesman: Do you want me to just mark you as complete?
Me: Yeah if you wouldn’t mind.
Salesman: <Hits some buttons>. Okay, you’re all set
Me: Thanks man.
It was worth my time, but what about yours?
All in all, I would say I was in the dealership about 3 minutes. Add another 10 minutes for the slight detour on my way home, and a few minutes for my time when I signed up I suppose, but even VERY conservatively, I’ve got to be in for less than 30 minutes. Valuing one’s time is a tricky proposition, but certainly worth 7500 American AAdvantage miles IMO.
Obviously YMMV in terms of how close your dealership is, who you get for a salesman, etc., but this is very consistent with my past experiences in doing test-drive signup offers like this.
Have you done it yet? If not, I encourage you to sign up!
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Dan Miller travels with his wife and 6 (SIX!) children. He loves to help families travel for free / cheap, especially larger families. If you are looking for help, drop him an email at 
This is on my to do list for tomorrow morning. There is a Cadillac dealership pretty close to my house. I wonder if I can make a reservation and test drive on the same day…
Did you get any type of confirmation? Last time people that didn’t complete the test drive didn’t receive a print out stating that their bonus would post in 4-6 weeks and never actually received their bonus.
I could see something similar happening here. IMO, just complete the test drive and ask for some type of receipt saying that it’s completed. Haven’t had a chance to do my test drive yet, so not sure if they are doing printed confirmations or not this time around.
I didn’t. I thought about that on my way home and I agree that I should have, but I just forgot. Hopefully it won’t be an issue
If you could guarantee me this experience, I’d be in, but still not going to do this one. Closest dealer is about a 30 min drive in the urban area traffic of the SF Bay Area for me. Too far. But I totally get that it makes sense for plenty of others.
About 5 minutes for my wife and I. We pass by the dealership everyday. So 7500 AA miles each, 5 minutes time and no out of the way drive. Good deal!
Awesome! Easy miles, right?!!?