Originally Posted by
B747-437B
While I cannot comment on Priority Pass policies, I know that many airlines have specific prohibitions against travelers on non-revenue tickets utilising lounges. This holds true whether the staff have purchased access to the lounge, hold membership to the lounge or are accessing the lounge at carrier expense. In those cases, if you are traveling on a non-revenue ticket, you are not permitted to use any lounge. This is true in case of all tickets issued by any airline under the ZED agreement, which explicitly provides that "use of special service facilities such as airport lounges... (is) not permitted".
The lounge (especially if it is a third party operated lounge) does not care or enforce this policy, but the airline authorising the rebated travel reserves the right to do so. Violations could potentially result in removal of benefits or other disciplinary action being taken.
I called United's Red Carpet Club customer service and I also called SFO's Red Carpet Club, and they both told me that if I purchased the Red Carpet Club membership through United, that it would definitely work without a boarding pass as long as you had a departure management card showing that you were on the standby list for a flight and the Red Carpet Club membership card. They weren't sure about Priority Pass though, and that what they did know was that Priority Pass didn't have access to all the United Red Carpet Clubs.
This seems to contradict what you are saying, and I was wondering what your sources are. By the way, I am not trying to be antagonistic, I just want to make sure it will work before I spend $400-500 on a membership.