Originally Posted by
flyguy6
Any tips on getting a saver seat on this high demand route?
You've answered your own question. UA knows that they can sell those seats, so they rarely will open them up for awards. If seats aren't sold, they may open some up for last minute travel -- for example, you can get 2 seats from DEN to LIH this Sunday -- I doubt there was much demand for the Sunday of a three-day weekend.
If you can find saver economy seats -- itself a tough proposition at times -- you can call UA and waitlist for business class saver instead. There's no guarantee you'll clear, but you'd at least have a chance.