Until a few days ago, every calculus textbook I have seen uses $u$ as the default variable for integration by substitution (a.k.a. integration by change of variables). It was brought to my attention recently that there is an exception: the calculus textbook by Hughes-Hallett et al. uses $w$ as its default letter for integration by substitution. The reason behind this is presumably to distinguish between the variables used in integration by substitution and in integration by parts. While that is an admirable idea, in practice I'd never seen anything other than "$u$-substitution" before. (As a graduate student I did teach with a much earlier edition of Hughes-Hallett than the current one but I do not recall the change of variables in the book being $w$, so I don't know if this $w$-substitution was present from the first edition of the book or not.)
Does anyone know calculus books besides Hughes-Hallett that discuss integration by substitution with a default letter other than $u$, or do you teach it with a default letter other than $u$ even if the class textbook uses $u$? (Edit: I do not have in mind trigonometric substitutions, where it is natural to use the new variable $\theta$ rather than $u$ for traditional geometric reasons. That also has a different flavor than what happens with other instances of integration by substitution in a calculus class, since standard substitutions take the form $u = f(x)$ while trig substitution is $x = f(\theta)$, so I am not asking about trigonometric substitution here.)