It wasn't busy either. The "dragon" was positively curt, borderline rude too
. Seriously its a pretty crap airport for lounges - get there just in time & grab a coffee/drink elsewhere.
Strange that they would deny access when it's not busy, as the BA lounges at ORD are the designated lounges for CX F/OWE and J/OWS passengers. At least they were when I flew a year and half ago as an OWE in J, and was denied access to both the F and J lounges because they were at capacity. The CX staff arranged for me (and a couple other passengers) to access the AF/KLM lounge. Meh.