For me, there's definitely a diminishing returns aspect. I'm pretty low key compared to the crowd in the thread about spending without the mint. I accumulate my points mostly through legitimate spend. My main source of manufactured spend is AP, which I hit extremely lightly and within the rules. I hit promos like Grand Slam pretty hard when they come around, mostly because it's fun. For me, BB is amazing because it converts a substantial amount of spend that I was previously unable to get points for into a points earning potential.

But, in general, I follow a 2-step/3-step rule. I'm also all about safety. I don't go for stuff that will raise red flags. Slow and steady is good for me. I generally won't go for a scheme that requires more than 2 steps in the physical world or 3 steps on line. This means I generally stay away from going to a store and buying physical cards to buy other cards elsewhere to put on BB and then use for spending. That's 3 steps. Even so, at this point I'm much more focused on status than sheer number of points. I've been accumulating points faster than I can use them recently, and I've burned through a decent number of points. Paying my mortgage at a 1:1 rate on a card that gets me EQM through BB is good enough for me at this point. I wish I had time to fly SQ suites for a 3-day Tokyo jaunt and stay in the Maldives three times a year, but I don't. For the time I get off, slow and steady has been working great. It's already difficult enough to explain to colleagues taking the entire family to New York, Hawaii and Europe in premium cabins in one year.