Princess Cruise Lines allows you to charge gambling chips to the room. When I heard about this 6 months ago I had the biggest smile on my face and my family thought it was because I was going on a cruise to the Caribbean! Imagine my disappointment when I read that there is a 3% service charge for all chips charged to the room... and it was a maximum of $5000 for the cruise.

I only fly once or twice a year and do not pay annual fees for credit cards. My tips:

1. Switch long distance phone carriers every month racking up 5000 mile bonuses. It is easy with three companies: AT&T (British Airways), Sprint (TWA) and all the airlines at MCI. I switch to MCI every other month.

2. When a free affinity card becomes available, I charge like crazy and take advantage of referral offers like United's refer one person to get the card, get 5000 miles deal. Christmas came in July in 1998.