Originally Posted by
heathe
However, last week the two of us had business seats from LHR to JFK: my ticket was a paid fare and my wife's a mileage seat. When we entered the Virgin Lounge she presented her ticket to one agent and I to another. But she was told that she was not eligible to enter the club and could do so only as my "guest."
This struck me as a mistake (the agents had a list of names of passengers eligible to enter: my name was on the list, hers was not).
That seems odd... I'm unaware of any restriction against award tickets. Did you volunteer this information, or were they able to tell from the fare class on the boarding pass that it was an award? Not being on the list doesn't automatically mean no entry - this has happened to me in the past (while in paid J) and they just made note of my name, flight number and PNR...