Funny you should ask about this. I just recently booked my honeymoon to Hawaii and was asking the same questions.

First... Seats become available 352 days out. So according to that...Today (10/3/02)..seats became available at 6am ET for 09/20/03. Tommorow...seats for 09/21/03 become available at 6am ET.

What I did to get the exact dates that I wanted...

Call at 6 am ET 352 Days out to obtain the outbound segment. Ask them to hold it for you (They can). If they res. agent says they can't....call back and get a different agent. Call back the next day and book the return SEGMENTS that you want for a return the FOLLOWING day. (Don't worry about the date as you will change the date later at no cost. You just want to have a full round trip ticket booked.) 352 days out from the date that you wish to return, call at 6am ET to change the return dates (at no charge) that you previously booked to the dates that you actually want.

I don't know if this makes sense or not...it's much easier to talk to than to put into words. (If someone else can paraphrase this better...please do!)

They normally only initially release two seats in each class per flight (Mainland to HNL), so to obtain four may be a stretch.

Hope this helps.