Originally Posted by
AutoSlash
My experience as a 5* reserving a PCAR at an UC location (FLL) was different. I was specifically assigned a spot with a PCAR. UC was pretty new there so I asked the agent why I was assigned a car instead of being able to choose and she old me it was because I had reserved a PCAR and there was no guarantee that that class of vehicle would be in the UC area so they assigned me one specifically. I was however free to choose anything I liked from the 5* section instead of my assigned vehicle. This all made sense.
All of that said, your experience was obviously different. Not sure if your experience was an outlier or mine was, but I suspect yours was (gut feel). You do make a good point though. It's probably worth spending less on an ICAR if you're generally happy with what is typically in the 5* section. Of course there are no guarantees though so sometimes it might work out for you, and sometimes not.
Totally possible that it was an outlier, my only surprise was this was DFW, so a large operation. I would never bank on being happy with what is in the 5* however I am leaning toward the $35 upgrade option. Has any one had a lack of decent upgrades available? That would be my key concern.