Interesting first experience with Ultimate Choice at SAN. I booked a midsize, and showed up to see a pretty barren President Circle section (oddly, 5 star was packed with full sizes and a few small SUVs). Of course, the prestige section had a Q50, C300, and two 2016 Camaros, for a $25 upgrade fee and a $40 upgrade fee, respectively. A gold agent tried to process the upgrade from a midsize to the Q50, and the 'system' wouldn't accept less than a $300 upgrade fee! She showed me the new total on a tablet and her inability to change it.

She said she'd been having difficulty with USAA/government CDPs and the Ultimate Choice upgrade section. It was quite disappointing- I booked a midsize for $22 total, so $50 all in would've been a great deal. The upgrade sign says the $25 fee is fixed no matter what the base rate/class reserved is, but Hertz can't let people stack a $25 upgrade fee on an $12 compact reservation and drive out with a Prestige car.

She also said I could choose any car in the President's Circle section as long as it didn't have navigation. Is there an added fee for choosing a car with XM as well?

Question- the email says you can just get in to a prestige car and drive to the gate, where the upgrade fee is added. Any experience with this? FWIW, I ended up in a Chevy Malibu