I have a couple of friends visiting HK on the way to Sydney in March, travelling economy on CX, and I wanted to see if I could give them lounge access as a surprise when they leave on a CX flight back to Sydney. I won't be travelling with them and they don't have any status. I called and asked CX customer care (I assume) whether I could buy an entry for them using either miles or cash for the CX HK business lounge despite not travelling with them and, after checking, the chap on the 2747 3333 number said that it wasn't possible. Fair enough. But then I googled broadly for this sort of lounge access and I found the following link on the Cathay website.

https://www.cathaypacific.com/cx/en_...dmittance.html

This suggests that a diamond card holder can actually buy access

Cathay members can redeem lounge pass(es) forMember self, friends or family

Departing on flights with any airline
It seems a bit too good to be true, although it's only available for diamond card holders to book for a friend so a relatively limited set of travellers that could take advantage of it, of which this is one instance (ie me buying them access with one of my vouchers or my Asia Miles).

I wondered if anyone had any practical experience of being able to do this (using a lounge access voucher from a Diamond card friend, that person's Asia Miles or even cash to be allowed to use a CX lounge without status and travelling in economy.

Thanks for any advice

ps, after 23 years as a diamond card holder I've always wondered whether lifetime diamond would have been a good thing - BA's latest changes to their programme show the downside in terms of outrage when any benefits are taken away