Really? Have you tried to book award travel to Hawaii over the past couple of years? From personal experience, the only option for most AA / BA saver awards are on AS metal, as AA seems to have little difficulty filling seats with customers paying CRAZY premiums - same goes for HA (I have limited experience with DL, UA), summer fares from LAX have creeped over $1k RT. Even HA inter-island awards are getting tougher, more expensive, due in part to the recent demise of YV.

From my non-statistical observations, average fares to Hawaii have more than doubled from 2007-08 recession lows. Based on Gary Kelly's 15% minimum margin requirement, Hawaii appears to be a no brainer, there must be some other reason why he is reluctant to do so.