Originally Posted by
kiwifrequentflyer
My guess is that you won't. I had an interesting situation recently. I was on a business class ticket Christchurch to Atlanta with Virgin Australia. For my flight Christchurch to Sydney it was codeshared with Air NZ that do not have business class for those flights, so my ticket was the "maximum" is possibly could be (The Works Duluxe). When I went to enter the lounge on it, they denied me access. Ultimately, I have *G with Air NZ so they switched my status on the ticket (previously had been credited to Virgin) which gave me entry.
I think that you could possibly find a lounge attendant that would let you in (my attendant agreed it was an awkward situation and I should probably have access), but it's not official policy.
Once in the lounge did you change your frequent flyer program back Virgin?
I went through this annoying process recently; had my THAI *G in the booking for seating and lounge access, once in Air NZ lounge changed to accrue into NZ Airpoints. I did this as some here have reported that had I turned up with my NZ (no status) Airpoints number I would have been turned away at the lounge even if I had showed my TG*G card - which is the Star Alliance minimum requirement stated for lounge access.
I acknowledge your situation is not a Star Alliance matter (as mine was), rather a cooperation partner agreement matter. But Air NZ seems to sail close to the wind on the Star Alliance stated benefits on this matter.