The 2002 Star Alliance 5th Anniversary promotion for 55,555 miles after flying five star alliance carriers worked out well for some of us. At the time there was plenty of analysis calling it a mediocre promotion. At least Davistev was one other flyertalker who figured out a lucrative routing and I worked it for my wife and I to get about 500,000 miles total for under $2,000.
http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/showt...5555+promotion
After getting $1,200 in UA bump vouchers and two domestic RT award vouchers for a 3 hour delay I guess the entire net cost of the trip was about $800 for the 20 flight segments and the run earned about 60,000 miles in Mexicana, Lufthansa, All Nippon, and Air Canada. Each of these accounts was boosted to business class and first class level awards through Diners transfers over the years. We pooled our ANA miles for a first award to New Zealand and converted other accounts into premium Europe awards. I still have leftover miles I plan to convert into Africa awards for this next year.