I have been told that before.....that you need to do it within 26 hours to flight time.

After talking to the second person (in the Phillipines but good english and quite nice) I was told that you need to do it prior to 26 hours to flight time and I am at the gate now.

And 2 seats available were confirmed by both agents.

Either the website and my previous contact CSR are wrong or this one was wrong. Or they are trained to say "please wait until the day you fly" if it is before that day and to say "you should have called us yesterday if you want to upgrade" if you are calling the day of the flight.

The upshot is that you can't upgrade from Coach to First. It should be on the website if that was possible and it is not.

I have noticed that the staffing here in Honolulu is much lower than in the mainland cities so that is likely why HAL provides such kind service in the Mainland cities and they are such "butts" in Honolulu.

There was a gate change today and one attendant had to empty the plane, process seat changes and load the same plane for the Transpac return. Also they have lots of new checkin computers in the center of the terminal in HNL but it requires a gate agent to put your bag tag on the bag and check your ID and they were very very scarce so although you could get to a terminal you had to wait 10-15 minutes for an agent to clear you from the terminal.

Bummer