They were using the invitation cards. The problem was that our name wasn't on the printed list they had, and they point blank refused to acknowledge that we should have access.

I then showed them my Royal Jordanian gold sparrowhawk status, which is one world sapphire equivalent, and they then wrote out a lounge invitation for us.

The flight controller who was on the phone to a manager didn't seem to understand the difference between a full avios redemption (which is what we'd done) and an upgrade with avios even though I explained it a couple of times.