HNF01

I havent tried to be honest. The welcome email printout - and the usual wide smile - worked with the dragonesses in PRG (both Menzies and Erste LCLs) and WAW.
However, last mth in BCN (which was also a LCL) she wanted an expiration date but the blue card expiration date was enough to satisfy that.
Note that my success rate is based on avoiding the male dragons

goqsane

a smile can get you this far. They just scan the boarding card and that's it

nk15

Since we are on the topic, I am curious, do lounges scan the boarding pass of the guest a *A Gold member brings into the lounge? Also, what prevents the *Gold member from getting out of the lounge and re-entering a bit later, bringing a second guest in?

HNF01

In WAW/14OCT they did.
In WAW there were ~5pax in the SEN lounge so the dragoness would notice. For me this would be out of rules.

Away from YYZ

OK, I am back from my trip.... Here are my reports

I get A3*G while I am in Japan. So on my return... I take out my A3 FFP, re-enter, still showing *S. Replaced A3 with TK FFP then back to A3, still *S. Kind of expected.

NRT NH lounge, explained to dragon ladies, no problem, she welcomes me in.

LAX UA lounge #1, denied access even I shows the online A3*G card (not just screenshot) She claims, first there is no expiry date, and I said I can show her my e-mail from A3. Then she said as long as the BP still showing *S, no access.

LAX UA lounge #2, explained to the dragon lady, she believed my story and let me in.

SFO Check-in, initially they want to charge 100USD for second check in luggage, explained to the first lady, she's OK, just not sure how to override the system. Asked the second lady, mentioned to put something in the comment field with my A3 #....

SFO UA lounge, denied access. Same story as LAX UA lounge #1. Furthermore, she explains it is a 'paid' lounge, and they have to charge back to A3 (!!) So, unless it shows A3*G, it is a no go.

Oh well, not much a lost, UA lounge is worst than MLL... But did saved me 100USD which is good ^

goqsane

You should have let your barcode scanned, there's information about the expiry date.

KLouis

Four years ago, on a SFO-HNL award flight (paid with M&M miles) and without having registered my "A3 gold" number, I entered the very UA lounge at SFO (and HNL on the way back), just showing my original M&B gold card that doesn't contain an expiration date. The only comments were of the kind "Look, an airline we never heard of before" and smiles. Which proves that rules may be saying whatever rule writers had in mind, but lounges are (wo)manned by either lounge dragons or lounge fairies. The end-result fully depends on which category the gate keeper belongs to on the day you have a "problem".

Away from YYZ

Tried, the UA machine doesn't read the code.

Away from YYZ

^

The "fairies" in NRT are always nice.