Fair question. I didn't always book that far in advance, and I didn't always sit next to my wife on the flights. In a few instances we weren't even on the same flights on some legs of our journey.

My experience has been that there's a higher likelihood of 2 tickets at lower redemption rates when award inventory is initially introduced.

Put another way: I've seldom found 2 award tickets at low redemption rates at 6 months or less before departure. I've always found 2 tickets at low rates at T-331 days.

The post I responded to above lacks credibility without supporting information or other context.