Thoughts on how to use companion voucher in new world

So I’m thinking ahead to when we would like to book lhr-bom in Jan26. There are some decent upper prices for May and Sep at the minute so hoping that will continue and we’ll be able to nab some at those sort of prices Jan. We are silver so normally use as 2-4-1 in upper rather than as upgrade voucher

But you can no longer part use a voucher I think so options are as I see it

1. Wait for the returns to release, and in the meantime potentially the outbound pricing increases

2. Book the outbound first but then unable to use companion voucher for the full return

I’m reading if you do option 2 and then try to link them there is now a £70pp charge and not even sure whether they would let you retro apply to the outbound you had already booked without repricing if the price had gone up in the meantime?

Any thoughts on the best strategy?

All I know is that it is no longer possible to make a one way booking and then add the return flight in when released.
You’d have to make 2 one way bookings or book the outbound and when inbound released, cancel outbound and rebook as one