Well, the first thing is that this community is not an average cross-section of society. It represents a highly biased sample of people who have a propensity to fly for business, or who own their businesses. Those that do the so-called mileage runs do so with (I would hope) discretionary disposable income.

How do you do get elite status with limited funds? There are, as you've seen, numerous schemes, ranging from semi-crazy segment runs in Thailand, to highly leveraged mainstream flights, such as those that are discussed on the CO boards regarding Amex Platinum card ticket purchases (you'd need a $300/year card for that). My advice? Probably look for the best bang per buck, in terms of miles per dollar spent. It seems that about 0.02/mile is in general about as good as it gets, which means you'd spend at least $2000 for 100,000 miles, or 1k, on UA. (Beware, your actual mileage may vary ) With that you'd get status and a nice vacation.

However, I'm not the best person to give advice, because I usually don't look all that critically at mileage-run type deals, since I fly too much as it is on business. However, I do sympathise with your quest, and wish you all the best.