Also if you ask the agent nicely they may offer the priority waitlist to the non status pax for the return segment.

I think you have to spilt to booking in order to make this work - actually spilt it to 1 pax per pnr so that it makes getting the seats on the return easier.

Also do rememeber there are ticketing deadlines as well for redemption bookings and I forgot, but is it 10 days before departure it must be cleared otherwise they have to cancel the booking?