Hello FT!
I've been a long-time lurker, but an experience this past week at the LAX oneworld Lounge has moved me from a long-time lurker to a first-time poster.
I'm a BAEC Gold and was flying AA LAX - ORD out of T4, and had about ~4 hours to go before my flight. While talking to one of the AAngels in the T4 AC, she mentioned that I could access the oneworld Lounge in TBIT as, per
http://www.oneworld.com/ffp/lounge-access:
Members of oneworld airline frequent flyer programmes with the equivalent of oneworld Emerald or Sapphire tier status can use lounges offered by oneworld airlines when departing on any flight marketed and operated by any oneworld member airline, regardless of cabin class being flown (exceptions are noted below). Emerald tier frequent flyers can use First Class, Business Class or frequent flyer lounges.
I was skeptical, as in most airports that I've seen, you can only access the terminal from where your flight is departing. But she said that as of 5/1/14, ticketed passengers with a boarding pass who have a same-day flight departing LAX can pass through TBIT security, in order to increase business at the shops and restaurants.
After passing through TBIT security without issue, I walked up to a smiling young man and young lady manning the oneworld Lounge's front desk. I gave them my boarding pass and BAEC Gold card, excited to experience the lounge after a very long day. At that hour, the lounge was completely empty, as the evening rush wouldn't begin for 4-5 hours.
The smiling young man suddenly stopped smiling and handed my boarding pass and FF card back at me and said I couldn't enter, as I didn't have a flight departing from that terminal. As the oneworld lounge access page was still in my phone's browser, I showed them the policy, but young man told me that the website was wrong.
Not wanting to fight the issue, I told them I understood that they were bound by policy, and asked if there was a supervisor or manager on-duty who might make "an exception as a one-time courtesy", but was told they were the only two people on-duty and no one higher than them would be in all day (it was a Friday mid-day, not a weekend or other off-hours time). The young lady told the young man the choice whether to make an exception was "up to" him, but he denied the request and chimed in saying that I "shouldn't even be in this terminal".
Is there some official policy somewhere that says you must be departing from TBIT in order to access the lounge?
If not, who can you appeal to in these types of policy-interpretation situations? For example, AA operates their own lounges with AA Premium Services personnel, with supervisors, managers, etc. The oneworld Lounge in TBIT is operated by Qantas, but who do lounge personnel report up to - in other words, who would be the next-level higher in situations where the interpretation of a policy is at issue? Perhaps the Qantas LAX station manager?
I really do like this lounge, so if some of you fine FT-folk can help bring clarity to this issue, I would truly be grateful.