Hawaii-based Airlines - HA mile redemption on partner airlines

Anybody used their HA miles fo partner airlines recently (especially virgin air?) How is availability and ease of transaction?

I am planning a trip and just wanted to know how worthwhile it would be to try and use some of my HA miles for a virgin upper class flight.
Thanks!

I haven't done pure partner awards, but I have done ABQ-HNL, which included ABQ-LAS segments on HP. It was pretty last minute that I was booking it (just under two weeks out IIRC), so it was tricky finding seats. HP seemed rather stingy so even when I could find a seat to HNL, I couldn't get from ABQ to the mainland gateway city (mostly via PHX as HP had just one daily roundtrip ABQ-LAS). I ended up with a 5 hour layover in LAS on the outbound, and all day in LAS on the return.

The irritating part is that you have to book them over the phone with HawaiianMiles Partner Awards, so you don't have access to the additional award seats that you can book online if you have Pualani status or the HawaiianMiles Visa card.