which booking class are you going with? if you are after status, the easiest way to get *Gold is to go and sign up for aegean airlines mileage program which offers *aG at 20k elite miles, out of which they credit 1k on signup themselves.
other *a partners include thai, turkish which have relatively easy requirements.
if you're going after miles, then air india is your other option.
Thanks a ton for the great advice,
A2A. ^
This is an insane arbitrage opportunity: *S after 1 flight; (will be) *G after 6!