That's interesting as I wouldn't see it as the ticket counter person's responsibility to make sure you had plans to come back to the US, but I guess that's what the process is. With Southwest's simple change and cancellation policies there are a couple ways around this, depending on what fare type you purchased and what your payment method was. It all boils down to booking a "fake" return flight for some random date and then canceling it after completing the outbound leg.
-If you are using RR points to book the trip or have enough points to book a return flight with RR points, go ahead and book at least the return flight with points. Then after you complete the first leg of the trip, cancel the remaining portion of the trip. Your RR points will be immediately refunded to you and then you can book your return when/how you want.
-If you purchase Business Select or Anytime fares, again, book as a roundtrip, fly the first leg and then cancel the remaining portion of the trip. Your return fare will be refunded to your original payment method.
-If you are booking Wanna Get Away fares you can do the same as above, but note that when you cancel the return flight you will receive travel funds (credit) to use towards a future flight. That trip must be completed within one year of the original purchase and funds can only be used by yourself. This would be fine if you then use the travel funds to purchase the return flight when you figure out when that will be, as long as it's before the 1 year cutoff. There could be a price difference between the original return flight you book and the one you actually use which could lead to you having excess travel funds that you could apply towards a future trip.
Hope that helps...
--TheMiddleSeat
