i used to travel to LA every week a couple of years ago. I was a five star and rented from the HLE hilton. as other posters mentioned already, the HLE is cheaper than LAX due to lower fees/taxes. the hilton shuttle runs every 20min, versus the hertz lax shuttle runs more often. upgrades at the HLE is somewhat random, as is the case with other HLEs, depending on what cars they have. similarly, at the LAX location, i have gotten from minimal to decent upgrades. since i became a "regular" at the HLE hilton, i got to know the folks who work there and got a number of very nice upgrades.