If the airline has a club and the traveler is a member, then it makes more sense to have the visitor use a refundable ticket.

No, it's not ridiculous. Depending on the airport, it may be much faster for the person visiting to go through security. I did this at MCO last May. Took my friend twenty minutes to get through, so he was able to wait at my gate when we landed. If I had gone out to meet him, then our time together would have been cut short by a large amount.

Non-Rev Works If You Can!
 

IF you can NR or have a friend that can help getting a non-rev ticket it's a good way to go.....IF you have access to it. Cancelling is just a keystroke.

It's actually pretty easy to buy the ticket and cancel it. I have done it several times. The funny thing is it has never been for the purpose of just getting to the airside. But, that's what it turned out to be. One of the times I was in the Skyclub at MCO and got tired of the delay and decided not to go. I had bought my ticket a few hours before and the agent cancelled it at the desk. I've also cancelled by phone and gate agents after checking in and going through security.

Not in my experience. Every time I've asked for one to escort my elderly parents to the gate, I've gotten one.

I vote for take the baby out to meet your sister on the other side of security. You have plenty of time to get back in even if the lines are quite long (which your sister will have to stand in anyways. There's just so much less hassle in doing it this way.

WE have gotten passes several times to go through security when our son was coming home from and returning to Afghanistan. They were more than happy and told us the first time that we could bring as many people as we wanted.

Getting a gate pass is at the discretion of the agent in the lobby. I would have your sister ask the agent if it is possible and explain the "baby" situation as the reason (and it would help if not only if you had all the flight info & confirmation number but if the baby is referenced in the reservation, that might help as well)

This is a different factual situation. You are accompanying someone with a clear need for assistance. Meeting someone transiting the airport is not a reason and, unless you get an agent who exercises discretion, you won't get it. I would seriously suggest, particularly given that you are at SEA, that you exit the airport, meet her and then head back through checkpoint yourself, even if they handed out passes.

I agree with all of the suggestions about doing the fully-refundable ticket option. However, I would modify one aspect of it: I recommend waiting to cancel the ticket until your visit is over and your sister leaves the secured area.

The reason is that once the ticket is canceled, the boarding pass granting access to the secured area becomes invalid. From that point, she would be in the secured area under false pretenses, and if an airline agent or TSA were to attempt to verify the validity of her boarding pass in the CRS, she could find herself in some trouble.

Now, it is unlikely that she would have to verify the boarding pass's validity again after passing through the checkpoint, but it's not out the realm of possibility.

I don't think your sister wants to risk having SSSS flags on her profile for a lengthy period of time because she made a mistake on one day.

So, in short, I would wait until she leaves the secured area (and no longer needs the boarding pass) to cancel the reservation and request the refund. And here's another suggestion: for her fully-refundable ticket, she should choose a flight that departs late in the day. That way, she has plenty of time to enjoy the secured area and then leave and cancel the reservation well before the flight would deaprt.

Just my $0.02.

I do not know how my mom does it but she always gets a guest pass to pick me up and drop me off. I have Cerebral Palsy, so it's just easier if I have an extra set of hands. Now my husband has tried to get a gate pass many times to escort me to the gate, it worked once and only once.
I'm not sure if it's because I state that I am disabled on every piece of paperwork possible, or if my mom is just known to be harmless, but I'd try making sure you put on your ticket request thing that you have special needs.

If it was in Norway and before the 15th of March this year you didn't need to worry about that hehe. No boarding pass check to enter the sterile area (and even the international area of the airport for a period, you could get out by going up the stairs and out through customs if you were in the Schengen area ). Because of EU regulations they are now checking boarding passes.

There are many valid reasons for being inside the sterile area without a valid boarding pass. Passengers that just came off an arriving flight and threw away their used BP, for one.

It doesn't matter what piece of paper you're holding. It matters what the airline computers can evidentiate. If you had just come off another flight, there would be a record in the system. But if you had booked a flight and then canceled it, you no longer would have a legitimate reason for being inside the secured area.

Not sure how much I'd test it, but "I had a valid ticket, decided not to fly today, cancelled it the moment I decided not to fly so that someone else could have my seat, and am [grabbing a coffee/using the lavatory/having a snack/visiting with friends before] leaving the airport" seems like a legitimate enough reason.