They simply cannot force partners to open award space.

I got almost the same case today holding a 057 award ticket operated by MU for a friend of mine. The MU flight finally got cancelled and there was no award space for anything for the whole month of October. The Flying Blue agent offered me to rebook them on AF's own metal and she clearly said: "While we cannot force a partner (in my case, China Eastern) to open up award space, the only thing that I can offer is to rebook them on Air France, that will ignore all the booking classes."

I am eventually glad to see AF did create an inventory for your wife, though.