Yes, HNL is still a black hole. Getting to HNL is always easy as the United 777's are almost never full but getting back is where we have problems. They seem to have a convention every other week and those late night flights back to the mainland are always full. I was able to make it on my first try last year but it was very stressfuf. I met people who were non-reving and was in the airport from early morning only to get the 10pm flight that night. The only good thing with united is that u could route yourself to SFO with an LAX ticket and then get a ticket from SFO-LAX on united which seems to have a flight every 30 mins. Me personally, I would always non-rev because I have friends who live in Waikiki and the shuttle bus are usually under $10 but if you have thing to do then go confirmed. Again, they have so many WW2 conventions that you have be be carefully when you plan on flying out because all you will see at the airport are retired men and women in war uniforms oh, and a million United Employees non-reving.