My mum and brother were visiting me and neither travel much but my younger brother had always wanted to visit a lounge (it was his first big major trip). I asked politely and was refused (very politely), even when I suggested they both go in and I would wait outside. Well, I rolled the die and asked my mum to wait outside and said I would take her up to the Priority Pass lounge once I had my brother settled. Anyway, it worked a treat and the BA staff came in and said it was fine to go back and bring my mum in. Not sure if that was because their supervisor had left or if they were not expecting me to ditch my mum.

It is a tough gig for them and I can see it being easier to refuse across the board rather than having to deal with making an exception but then a few minutes later not being able to make an exception. My experience is just ask and you might get lucky (rare), and accept a no graciously. With the odd exception (like in any line of work), I do think they do their best. Ofc it would be nice if the rules were relaxed a little but that is for a different thread and would impact capacity.