I've been at LAX every day this week since the launch there of Ultimate Choice.

Surely no-one really thought that this was going to be be the means whereby there were a load more free and juicy upgrades just waiting for people to take them?

What they have done is introduced a system whereby you can choose the car you want from its category, with a large area for each of Compact, Mid-Size and Full-Size cars. These are in addition to the sections for Gold, Five Star and Presidents Circle. With most of the facility now set out this way, you are going to get more choice in any of these areas than you used to get in just two short lines of Gold Choice - but it is still going to be the same cars, it is not going to be lots of free upgrades. Having said that. I have seen a few SUVs in each area - Q4s in the Mid-Size area and Ls in the Full-Size, as well as a few G class cars and other upgrades in the Presidents Circle bit, as well as some of the E6 cars (Hybrids). Needless to say, these will not linger long from when they are put there.

The other thing that is new are the small collection of cars for which there is a defined upgrade cost - $25 for Pres Circle, $35 for everyone else, at the end of the Pres Circle and 5 Star sections. So far, these have generally been Infiniti Q50s (they've got a lot of them at present), but I've also seen the Audi A4, Infiniti QX30, Merc CLA 250 and C300, Volvo v60 Cadillac XTS, Avalon and a few others in this area. If you've booked a C Class car, getting one of these for $25 extra a day is probably a better deal than you get any other way.

Ultimate Choice was never going to give more of us more upgrades for free, but in terms of giving the customer greater choice without having to go and ask, I think it works.