Originally Posted by jackal

Welcome to FlyerTalk!

The chances of a minivan in the Gold area are pretty minimal. I would not plan or expect that to be the case. That said, technically by the terms of the Ultimate Choice program, if there is one in the Gold area, you should be able to get it for free, though at least as of right now, there are some issues with staff understanding the rules about what you are entitled to take.

If there are no vans in the Gold Choice area and you pick one from the Minivan area, it's a little iffier. Vans have historically been considered "lower" than the larger SUVs, but they're sort of a different "fork" above the standard car classes and so aren't a direct upgrade or downgrade from SUVs. You might have luck talking an agent/manager into getting a van at no cost. Note that changing out of the van may cause the promo code you're using to be invalidated, which might cause your cost to go up.

Note that some of the Prestige Collection SUVs have fairly comfortable seating for 6 passengers--like the QX80 or the Escalade especially, and maybe a few others, too. You might just plan to go ahead with one of those if the cost is acceptable.