Starwood Preferred Guest - Fourth of July a busy time at the Hawaiian properties?

I'm planning a trip to Maui over the Fourth of July, and I'm trying to figure out if this is a period of really, really high demand or simply high demand on Maui.

Last week, about a month prior to my departure date, UA had 5+ open F award seats SFO-OGG for both my departure and return on multiple flights each day. That struck me as a sign of lower demand over the Fourth of July.

However, the Sheraton's sold on points and the Westin only had the 11,500-pt rooms available. That strikes me as higher demand.

So... from anyone's experience, is this a busy time? Trying to set my expectations as a Platinum of what kind of room to expect, hoping of course for upgrade. Thanks!

Me and my wife had thought about stopping in HNL on our way back from Asia but changed our plans because of the hotel situation. We where in HNL last year during the 4th Holiday and it was reasonably priced but what a difference a year makes. I have a friend that works in the Hyatt and he says things have been been steadily increasing all year so I think that along with the 4th falling on a Monday allowing a lot of west coasters to take some long weekend breaks to HNL has things all full.

Now for your upgrade chances. Typically I like to see a full leisure hotel as a Plat as I think those are the best times to get an upgrade as they end up filling up every available room including the suites that they will sometimes not upgrade you to under normal circumstances. If you have been to that particular property before that will sometimes help your chances in case there are a lot of Plats during the same time...I would think the hotels would bump a plat with previous stays over one without any previous stays.

As to the question of whether this "is a busy time", I think you already know that it IS a busy time.

Hawaii is booming this summer. Waikiki is sold out of any lower rates for the entire summer.

THis past weekend, which was a sold out weekend, I had a room booked at the SHeraton Waikiki. Platinum, with about 40 nights so far at that property this year. I was given one of the worst rooms in the hotel. Low floor, non-renovated, 2 doubles. It wasn't the manor wing, but it wasn't nice. It's all they could do, though. Sold out.

I wouldn't look for much re: upgrades in Waikiki this summer...maybe Maui will be different.

Aloha