New DoorDash drivers can currently earn 5,900 American Airlines AAdvantage miles plus 5,900 Loyalty Points towards status after completing just one delivery.

And if you’re already past 100,000 points earned this year, you get a 30% bonus on that status so you earn up to 7,670 Loyalty Points.

One Mile at a Time did the offer and found that signup took all of five minutes:

• provide basic personal details, upload an ID, and get background checked.
  
• he was approved immediately (though not everyone is).

He activated the app and he was solicited for a delivery within 2 minutes. He completed it, got $6 in cash and is now going to chase after the miles and loyalty points.

Another blogger spent two hours DoorDashing and earned $48 plus the same miles and points. That’s minimal effort for a few points, but mostly this is interesting to those chasing AAdvantage status.

You’ll maybe need to chase the points with customer service if they don’t post on their own, and this is a one-off reward for new DoorDash drivers. So should I do it? I’ve already requalified for 2026 Executive Platinum status but it would be a boost towards a higher level Loyalty Point Reward.

• This is a lot of time and your hourly rate may be worth more than the DoorDash payment plus AAdvantage offer (and there may be better non-AA offers out there).

• There are lower effort ways to earn American Airlines loyalty points quickly. The best have often been with Motley Fool (but beware stacking offers, they don’t like it), meal kit subscriptions, TurboTax around tax time, Wall Street Journal trials, etc.

On the other hand, this can be part of a broader strategy to earn status – don’t think of it as ‘the meal kit subscriptions are lower effort ways to earn a similar number of points’ think of it instead as ‘this plus the meal kit subscriptions, Motley Fool and other offers get me along way towards status’ when all completed together.

And it could be a fun window into the experience, humanizing in a way to experience ‘the other side’ and see just how tough it is out there to be at the mercy of the algorithm and not know what you’re getting into when it comes to dealing with restaurant pickups, parking for delivery, and actually making handoffs of food to random people.

I guess the biggest reason not to do this offer is that there may be other, better offers when you finally do decide to sign up. New drivers often get the best deals, though the more you stay on the platform and slog through low pay the better you can do also.

• Guaranteed Earnings DoorDash guarantees a minimum payout to new drivers for completing a specified number of deliveries within a set time (usually 30 days). If you under-earn, DoorDash pays you the difference. Examples: $500 for 75 deliveries, $1,000 for 100, etc. This varies by region.

• Referral Bonuses Existing drivers can earn bonuses by referring new drivers. Both referrer and new driver get paid if the new driver hits delivery thresholds. These offers change regularly and by market.

• Peak Pay Extra pay such as $1-3 extra per delivery during surge windows like lunch or dinner.

• Dasher Challenges Time-limited goals (complete X deliveries in Y hours or days) with a fixed bonus. For instance, $20 extra for 15 deliveries in a week. Offers are random, sporadic, and vary by market.

• Tiered Rewards (Elite status). Silver / Gold / Platinum offer priority on high-paying orders, better support, access to larger orders. These tiers are based on your rating, acceptance rate, and completion rate.

So I need your help: what do you think, should I follow in One Mile at a Time‘s footsteps and moonlight as a DoorDash driver, even if just once? I promise not to wind up driving onto any runways!