Not necessarily. If you end up needing to cancel a trip with the companion fare attached, you can keep that intact by keeping the original value of the ticket to use on a later flight (instead of refunding to wallet). Then you’ll just call AS when you decide on an itinerary and have them apply that ticket to the cost of the trip. It can be difficult to find an itinerary priced exactly the same, so you may need to pay a bit or lose some value depending on the cost. I’ve done this recently. Just make sure you understand the expiry of the ticket.

As far as maximizing value, just consider routes that don’t get discounted much. Even better if you can couple the companion fare with GGU’s.

Best value would be using during peak travel periods like holidays or spring break where fares are generally high.

You may also want to try calling AS to see if they’ll extend the companion fare expiration due to COVID.