TLDR: I want to travel from DXB to MNL and return with a friend who will fly back on a separate flight (it's a more direct/convenient routing for her)

We've both traveled this route and others before without issue, but we're concerned about offloading at Manila this time.
When I'm around, immigration at MNL has a quick chat with us, and they see our history, and it's all good.
I'm not sure what happens if I'm not there, and we don't want to find out.

The options I see are:
- book all one-way tickets (expensive)
- book a round-trip for me, and a one-way cash ticket for my friend (the one way is almost a round-trip ticket)
- book a round-trip for me, and use points for my friend (this might work, but CX agents seemed unprepared for this)

We're doing PE because I'm a large-ish guy and 8+ hours in economy (and for this route in particular) is not gonna happen.
I'd love to take Emirates, but there's no PE on this route.

Has anyone done something like this before? Any other options?