Hawaiian does have assigned seating, at least that I experienced as an infrequent flier interisland. But I did not notice any option to choose during the booking process, it was only at online checkin that I saw there was a choice.
Maybe you can call reservations to choose seats, after booking. Or is there an online "my reservations" tool, where you input your record locator and can change seats?
minnie00, you may want to check the date on what you read. Hawaiian formerly had open seating, as did Aloha, but that was years ago. Hawaiian switched to assigned seating March 1, 2005, and you should be able to pick seats at time of booking (within reason, say, not more than a couple months out) now.
Location: LIH and frequently travel to HNL and LAS
Programs: HA Pualani Gold, UA & AA peon
Posts: 133
Quote:
Originally Posted by cblaisd
Sometimes, unless you have HA status or an HA Visa, you can't pick seats at booking. Why, I don't know.
Yeah, that's always been kinda weird.
Also, if you are booking a transpac flight, HA will only allow seat selection on seats common across all 3 767 types. HA has 3 different configurations each with a different amount of Y class seats so the maximum Y seats they can allow for assignment is something like 234 per flight. If the flight fills up beyond that then the website won't allow you to select seats. You would either have to call reservations and ask to see if they can assign you (sometimes it didn't work for me) or wait to day of departure and check-in. At least, that's what an HA staffer told me a while back.
I booked r/t SFO-HNL last week for travel right after ThxGiving and was able to pick coach seating assignments.
Don't know the innards of their booking system like above posters, as this is my first mainland-HI trip on this airline(just done a couple HNL-LIH trips in the past).
Actually, I found the website easy to navigate, and I got a very nice price, probably partly due to my travel dates.
Programs: Hyatt Diamond, Fairmont Lifetime Plat, UA Silver, dirt elsewhere
Posts: 30,811
I just purchased interisland tickets and was able to select seats at that time. The plane had almost every seat available though, so I don't know if it had to do with loads or not.
I also think I was able to select seats for my last flight with them 2 years ago.
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Mary Life is too short to spend it being angry
We are using AA miles to book free tix on Hawaiian and I was able to pick middle seats...its a 2 3 2...and ALL the 2 side seating was held back unitl the airport
but when I go to buy the tix online and choose seats it shows a lot of them open to book. weird.
but...great thing is...we are going to Hawaii using miles...saving lots of cash.
We are using AA miles to book free tix on Hawaiian and I was able to pick middle seats...its a 2 3 2...and ALL the 2 side seating was held back unitl the airport
but when I go to buy the tix online and choose seats it shows a lot of them open to book. weird.
but...great thing is...we are going to Hawaii using miles...saving lots of cash.
If you need any information or help in getting around hawaii just feel free to let me know. Are you flying to Oahu? or the other islands like Maui, kauai, big island etc?
Life is too short to spend it being angry 
