Originally Posted by orbitmic

Ultimately the lounge simply can't risk that it would need to turn away people for whom this is the primary lounge to use just to accommodate people who would be eligible elsewhere. In that sense, they will have a "pecking order" of sort on who to admit based on what they will expect which will go something like:

Top priority: People for whom this is the primary lounge (ie BA, EI, etc) whether eligible through class of travel, status (any) or both; then:
2. People with BAEC status on other eligible flights regardless of class of travel (in order Premier, GGL, GCH, SCH), then:
3. People with partner status on other eligible flights in F or J
4. People with partner status on other eligible flights in W or Y
5. People with no status on other eligible flights in F or J

They will let people in in a "conservative" way, so they will not allow people in from category 2 if it risks them needing to reject people in category 1, they will not allow people in from category 3 if it risks them needing to reject people in category 2, etc .You were in category 3 so I would say that on the vast majority of days, you would likely be turned away. Your sons were in category 5, and I would expect them to virtually never be allowed, because literally every time, there will be more eligible people in higher priority categories that will be in a position to potentially make it into the lounge, especially with one huge flight checking in later so it would never be a sensible risk for the lounge to let them in, except perhaps if your flight was delayed and your sons had try to come in late in the evening, at a time when lounge staff know that all the eligible people on the 292 are already "in" so there will be no surprise.