Award changes always seem to hit Hawaii locals particularly hard - perhaps there's an assumption that the only people traveling to the islands are leisure travelers on their 'dream vacation'. I guess as long as we're traveling in economy there's no change, so there's that positive. But knowing UA IT as I do, I can already anticipate the first phone call trying to explain to agents that a HNL-LAX-ORD-XXX routing is not the same as HNL-ORD-XXX. Of course, I suppose the point is moot since UA almost never makes premium cabin awards to/from HI available any more, particularly on the long-hauls.
Was really hoping for a rescinding of change/canx fees for Plats though, and that certainly didn't happen. But all in all, it could definitely have been worse.