when does award invesntory get reviewed & released?
 

I think award seats first get released 350-something days out from the travel date. But what I'm wondering is does anyone know when Hawaiian typically reviews and releases more inventory?? (e.g. on NWA, flights get reviewed and more seats added 90 days out)

I'm checking with reservations often but having a heckuva time getting one particular F.C. seat out to HNL at Christmas time. I have one, but the girlfriend is flying in the back and I don't want to be miserable back there ('cause there's no way I would let her be in the back w/o me... I'd trade seats).

thanks for any info...

Based upon my experience with HA, I doubt they have such a system. They seem very unsophisticated in a surprising number of ways.

Plus, they generate a fair amount of cash by selling their open F seats at the airport. I suspect they are more interested in generating cash than giving the seats up for miles.

I agree - HA miles are worth quite a bit less than major airline miles, for a variety of reasons. First is that they charge 10,000 for an interisland coach r/t, rather than 5,000. Second is (from what I can tell) poor award availability.

I travel a lot on the HNL/PDX route to see family and try to use miles for upgrades. (I actually really like HA first class service). Only on extremely rare occasions are mileage upgrades available in advance. If you go early enough to the airport in HNL, they'll usually let you use miles on the day of travel in lieu of paying the cash upgrade fee, though. They don't like to do this in PDX, probably because the ground crew (DL, I think) doesn't know the procedures for a mileage upgrade.

Yup... HA contracts DL at PDX... and of course... why would DL know anything about handling/giving upgrades http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/wink.gif

... the one thing I like about HA, and with AQ that is, is that, for interisland travel, there is usually a lot of availability, as far as I've found. Even if it costs 10,000 miles...

The biggest problem I have with HA Miles is award redemption on NW. It takes 40,000 miles between the mainland and HI.