Just what is the 'relationship' between AA and HA?

I know that one can cash in AA miles to get to HNL, but bec. of an 'agreement' that AA has with HAL, I'm told by AA agents, you need to use an additional 5000 miles for each interisland flight.

So instead of the usual 35,000 miles for award travel from the mainland to anywhere in HI, one now must use 45,000 AA miles on HAL to go beyond HNL.

Can one accrue AA miles when flying HAL? (I couldn't find a place on the HAL Web site to do it - maybe there's another way?)