It comes down to:

1) Lack of company knowledge by person at the entrance to lounge

2) Jealousy

Mr Sox and I when she is not working tend to do alot of weekend trips away. Due to the nature we always take confirmed bookings (not staff travel) and when the price is rite we upgrade to CE. Due to this we have both reached Silver and also for my work my company books me BA.

Now we have the Silver card and as we are saving the pennies when we book the weekends away if a flight shows 50+ empty seats we will use the staff travel as we have lounge and can often be far cheaper. So far we have done about 6 trips and 50% have caused tension out of London.

a) You should not be using the lounge but just this once you can. I asked if the lounge was busy and was told it was not. I therefore pointed out he/she may want to update themselves on company policy and we walked into the lounge.

b) Was told we could not use the lounge. We carry the print out and the person said sorry for the error.

c) One person looked blank and asked the person next to them. We got a filthy look with "Yes they are allowed to use the lounge but no idea why the company allow this" Hmm charming.

Maybe your father could speak to staff travel or his manager so they can confirm. If you get a positive answer have this in writing or tagged onto your boooking ref. I would not just take a punt on the day as my experience shows above often they have no clue.

Best of luck