Originally Posted by
corporate-wage-slave
...you may feel happier to book a suboptimal but do-able date as soon as you can as a safekeeping. Not sure a same day return falls into that category however.
I found that the booking engine at least makes sure you have MCT for the return leg

.
Would both strategies also work if trying to UuA? In particular, can you add a return to a one-way and get it repriced accordingly?