Google Music

Good: A number of free tracks, good selection of purchaseable tracks, can be downloaded to your computer or streamed from the cloud, neat auto-playlist based on a particular favorite track.

Bad: Nothing so far

Favorite Credit Cards

Capital One for no foreign currency conversion fee plus no hassle 1% rebate which can be applied to your account at any amount and any time.

Costco Amex Business for 5% back on Marriott family hotels and Hertz rentals and lesser percentages on Delta, Jet Blue, and B&N through Open Savings (this part is a current statement rebate!) as well as 5% 4% on gas, 3% at restaurants, 2% on travel (on top of Open Savings, if any), and 1% everything else (this part is a paid as an annual refund voucher you pick up in Feb at Costco in cash).  You would need an existing Costco membership or apply and pay for a new one.  You Costco membership automatically gets charged to this card.

Charles Schwab Visa for 2% back on everything, though you need a SchwabOne brokerage account to obtain the rebate.  (Fidelity has something similar.)

None of the above have annual fees.  Also, I don’t pay attention to interest rates on CCs because I don’t tend to carry a balance, so they may be outrageous.

A runner up is Citi Forward card, for 5% on restaurants, books, and movies.  Supposedly, Amazon counts as a bookseller even if you don’t buy books, so this is a better bonus than even using the Chase Amazon Visa card (3% back at Amazon).  Also, if you use and pay off your card, you get 100 thank you pts per billing period (equivalent to ~$1 in rewards).

La Quinta Hotels vs Others

Perhaps I’m being a little inaccurate here, but I’d call them the Southwest of hotel chains. The rates are reasonable and the rewards program is generous. Sign up for the no-annual fee credit card and get extra points that way. The rooms are pretty big.

Compare them to say Courtyard Marriott and the only downside might be less fancy breakfasts, but the upside is a cheaper rate. On the other hand, some Fairfield Inn are actually a little nicer than La Quinta. This is a weird thing since Fairfield Inn is Marriott also, but supposedly lower end than Courtyard.

I must say that I’ve had a pretty bad experience with Hawthorne Suites which is a Hyatt hotel partner. They attempted to bald-facedly bill me for an extra day thinking I wouldn’t notice (0% chance I wouldn’t), and they never credited my Hyatt points. I would never go with them again.

I did recently stay at the Hyatt at Embarcadero in SF, and it’s pretty nice. I guess for a couple hundred dollars it better be.