Hawaiian Air Rule 240
The meat of it is:
<font face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size="2">New receiving carrier(s) means a carrier or combination of connecting carriers, other than the original receiving carrier(s), operating between the point of misconnnection and the destination or next point of stopover or connecting point shown on the passenger's ticket, on whose flight a passenger is transported from the connecting point.
...
Any carrier causing such delay or in the case of a misconnection, the original receiving carrier(s) will transport the passenger without stopover on its (their) next flight on which space is available in the same class of service as the passenger's original outbound flight at no additional cost to the passenger.</font>
It doesn't say exactly who looks up the schedule or which airline employee confirms the seats. Usually the delaying airline does that for you for your convenience, but if you already looked at the schedule and have a preference, they don't mind.
If you're asking if Rule 240 was broken in your case, the answer is no.
[This message has been edited by JS (edited 09-07-2001).]