Originally Posted by Efrem

Not on AA, but there's an old thread someone might dig up about something called the "Baht run." (Just did a search; didn't see that thread, but found a lot of others that mentioned it.) Thai Airways had some fares as low as $12 US for short internal flights if you booked them in Thailand. They counted for minimum mileage and segment count (you could earn top-tier on segments on UA before AA allowed it) on UA. Quite a few FTers flew over there and made ten or twelve trips per day. No chance of missing a connection, since the same aircraft would turn around each time. Even after factoring in the cost of a trip to Thailand, it was a cheap route to status for those who had the time and the fortitude.

I suspect the Thais thought it was quite funny at the time. They got to sell a lot of tickets, UA had to give those people a lot of status benefits.