I've redeemed 35,000 mile awards from DFW to Hawaii four times (four sets of two tickets) since November 2004 and had no problems getting coach seats. We are both platinum on AA but I helped a non-status member redeem miles from DFW to Kauai in April 2005. We went from DFW to Kauai over Thanksgiving, from DFW to Maui over New Years, from DFW to Maui for my birthday (also Valentine's Day weekend), and from DFW to Maui in early April. I booked most of the trips three to four weeks ahead of the travel date. We were able to get the DFW/Maui non-stop flights only on the April 2005 trip. We flew through Chicago and San Francisco on the other two Maui trips (outbound only) and had the Maui to DFW nonstops on the return.

Oh btw all the trips to Maui were to go whale watching, so go from late December through late April if you want to have an absolutely amazing experience with the humpbacks. I was sprayed with whale mist from a humpback who was only five feet from our zodiac (28 foot raft) on my birthday; the rainbow in the whale spray was magical!