The tickets that I booked are $246 on 2/15/2016 (Monday, President's Day) but I'd prefer to go on the previous Saturday or Sunday (2/13 or 2/14) but those tickets are about double the cost ($455). If the price goes down on any of those days 60+ days before my departure date, I'll change my seats over to that flight but for now I wanted to at least lock in a good price although it's a slightly less desirable day.

As for the reward ticket booking, it's there so that I can keep the 2 seats reserved on the flight so that no one else can grab them as well as hold the 2 seats in the off chance that the flight gets full or prices jump significantly to the point where using the companion pass may not be worthwhile. e.g., if the seat prices jump from $246->$600 and the return flight is $300 then I have the option of using the companion pass to get 2 seats round trip for roughly $1000 ($900 + $100) or just buy return seats for $600 and keep my award tickets. I guess it's kind of a backup just in case.