A schedule switch was made by Alaska for our flight Kona to Boise (via Seattle) in September. I used a round trip to book because I was using a Companion Pass on this booking. The schedule now puts us departing KOA 2.5 hours earlier than planned on the booked Alaska Air flight. I note, on the Alaska website, that there's a better-timed flight the same day with Hawaiian for the first leg (KOA to PDX) and Alaska for the second leg still to get us home to Boise.

If I contact Customer Service will they likely be able to switch me over to the Hawaiian Airlines flight instead of the booked one but we can keep our incoming flight on this round trip ticket? What will happen to the fees I paid for Premium seating on the Alaska Air metal for this first KOA to SEA leg? Could I expect a refund of the seat fee or would it apply to getting Premium on the Hawaiian Airlines metal with the better schedule?

Would it be better to wait to attempt this until after the April "official" switchover (whatever date that is)?

I thought I'd ask here before calling Customer Service so I might know what to expect. And, yes, I typically don't book round trip due to hassles just like this but it was a Companion Fare (BofA credit card).

should be able to switch without any issues.. normally you can do those online on your own too although with seat fees you probably need to call anyways

I had this happen and was able to switch both the outbound and return of award flights. Was originally on the evening HA SAN-HNL flight and there was a schedule change, agent allowed me to switch to the midday AS flight. For the return I was on HNL-LAS-SAN and another schedule change allowed us to switch to the direct HNL-SAN. Agents in both cases looked at AS and HA flights for the switch.