HA canceled both outbound legs of our July 16 flight OGG->PPT First Class flight:

HA 265 OGG to HNL
HA 481 HNL to PPT

because the OGG->HNL leg only was canceled. No notification was given of the cancelation, and I only found out about it last week because I happened to call on another matter. The lady I spoke with said their policy is to cancel all legs of a flight when one leg of a "connecting" flight is canceled. No apologies for the mess HA created. For some reason they didn't try to put us on another HA OGG->HNL flight as part of the cancellation, of which there are many?

Since my outbound itinerary was canceled (the return legs PPT->OGG were untouched?), there were no more first-class seats so we had to rebook economy

HA 235 OGG to HNL
HA 481 HNL to PPT

The lady said that because the tickets were non-refundable, they couldn't credit me with the fare difference. My only option was to email customer service and request a credit. With great effort (10 attempts over 2 days to get an email off without 403 or other error messages), customer service replied. This reply ignored the fact that HA had canceled my flight and not attempted to rebook it and simply said:

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We apologize for any inconvenience our schedule change has caused.

Kindly be advised that as stated in the agreement between Hawaiian Airlines and its passengers (Contract of Carriage), schedules are subject to change without notice. Nonetheless, please be assured that whenever flight disruptions occur, we will provide our best efforts in re-accommodating and assisting our affected passengers.

You may refer to [link to Contract of Carriage].
Furthermore, kindly note that requests due to a flight disruption must be put in writing for further consideration.

After all the flights on the reservation are taken, you may send your letter including copies of the following
•Tickets
•Boarding pass stubs
•Expense receipts (if any)

Documentation must be sent via mail or facsimile to:

Hawaiian Airlines
Consumer Affairs Office
P.O. Box 30008
Honolulu, HI 96820
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If you read the Contract of Carriage it says

Rule 24: Refunds
INVOLUNTARY REFUNDS. We will refund you as follows when
Rule 21 applies: Flight Delays, Changes, Cancellations, and Aircraft Changes, (ii) you surrender the unused portion of your Ticket to us, and (iii) the reason for you not traveling is through no fault of your own.
Involuntary Refund Ticket Partially Used. If a portion of your Ticket has been used, you are entitled to a refund of an amount equal to the difference between (i) the fare and charges applicable to the original issued Ticket and (ii) the fare and charges applicable to the used portion of the Ticket.

OTHER REFUNDS
Change in Paid-For Class of Service. If you paid for a first-class seat and were downgraded, we will refund you the difference between the fare you paid and the applicable economy fare if there is a fare difference.

so it seems we should be due a refund on the unused First Class outbound fare.

We're new to flying HA and are in a state of disbelief on how HA has handled this.

Any suggestions on how to proceed?