Just offering a few random thoughts:
Flying out from the East, there's a big difference in equipment flown by UA & other legacy carriers these days - it's 12+ hours excluding connection time, and Mrs. L will NOT be happy even in Y+ on a 757 or 737-800, no matter how attractive & low the fares are. For enduring those, we might as well do a TPAC on CX and head to HKG for a bit more, time & money-wise, and, get better onboard services with at least 1 meal in Y plus a light snack.

The last time we did HNL traveling with extended family, we connect via ORD and rode on a 777's - with a tight connection and barely enough time to grab some real food. If UA & others could, they would try to fly a Regional Jet-LR/ER out of LAX/SFO if it's certified for OTOPS on the routing to match demands & equipment capacity ... okay, just kidding.

HNL is expensive, but it's far cheaper adjusted for inflation & COLA vs. 25 years ago, and my email accounts getting plastered year-round with special deals & offers from the hotels that we've stayed at previously, so they aren't filling up all the rooms. We have relatives living in and working in HNL, they are working 2 jobs just to make ends meet b/c it's been rough for them in terms of earning the tourism dollars over the years (and, it's not fully recovered, they said.) There aren't as many Asian tourists and visitors as it should/used to be (but, that segment are recognized as the number 1 driving force/economic fuel for the islands) and if this new H7N9 bird flu turned out to be worse than feared and spread, expect the roof to cave in over Waikiki - memories tend to fade quickly, but the island economy took a big hit back in the SARS days.

Perhaps, this is more symptomatic of whether the U.S. economy is really recovering or not, or just barely getting by ....

Mahalo