I too can confirm that availability for BF upgrades/ BF Standard Rewards to HNL are indeed very difficult to obtain; the farther out the flight, the more difficult. If you are willing to take the risk, they often open up very close to the flight (at least for Standard reward, not upgrade). I recently did a trip with 3 paid BF tickets, and 4 Easypass Y awards. Within two weeks of the return, 2 seats opened in BF standard, then another 2 a few days later. I was able to switch all four Y rewards to BF for the return, but had to pay the last-minute booking fees and juggle between accounts to have enough miles to secure them (while waiting for the original rewards to be re-deposited). It was a lot of monitoring, but it can be done..

Robin