I am so annoyed at BA for being so rude to me at Terminal 1 Heathrow, Went to First Class lounge and refused access on my platinum status, told it was for First Class passengers only.

When I told her that she might like to check her manual, I was told that she knew her job and was promptly asked to leave.

I have read many bad experiences about BA's lounge policy, can something be done to sort this mess out, BA has become notourious for denying Oneworld Emerald customers access to it's first class lounge, and frankly fed up with the poor service that BA gives.

I would write to BA, QF and OW - although not sure whether it will fall on deaf ears in all 3. I agree it's a disgrace.

The T1 F lounge isn't much nicer than the Terraces and when it gets too crowded they stop allowing non-F pax in (T1 is crawling with BA Gold as you might imagine). Probably the agent was trying to communicate this temporary embargo; at other times they do allow Emeralds in just fine (I can confirm based on admitted as QF Plat on a BA CE ticket) ... and the fine print in the OW lounge policy does say "subject to capacity" so they are 100% in compliance even if BA decides "capacity" means 1 Emerald is 1 too many. But trust me, it just isn't worth fighting to get into this lounge. The whole T1 redevelopment is a shambles, along with many of the changes that BA has done in the past year. Making BA the bottom of the top tier in airlines and sinking fast, soon to be 2nd tier if things continue on the same lines as the past 6 months. I fly BA a lot and it has been sad to see all the things that have gone wrong, and stayed wrong. If it goes on much longer I won't be flying BA very much and they'll have one more empty spot in the F lounge at T1.

James, I can almost predict the smug reply from BA, should you write in to complain:

"Dear Mr King. We were sorry to hear about your recent experience at LHR T1... It must have been I imagine how frustrating and disappointing... etc. Please find enclosed a packet of Shortbread by way of apology."

On a less flippant note, I agree with number_6, BA could and probably would have found a way to hide behind the lounge rules, but the dragon you ecountered handled the situation really badly. I would've gone into the Club lounge and politely asked to see the duty supervisor.

A better approach, IME, is to ask the agent to show me on the lounge access crib card where I have gone wrong. (Of course, it then transpires that I haven't, but I knew that anyway.) It saves some face for the agent, which then takes the hostility out of the situation.

Same with check-in privileges, unless of course one is dealing with the right bolshy types sometimes found in a certain country lying between Canada and Mexico, who would probably have you arrested for knowing the dangerous piece of information that there is a crib card for check-in agents.

Argh I find these stories about BA staff really depressing. I wish that company signed agreements could be enforced by staff. Oneworld Ruby is a foreign currency to most staff outside of LHR. QF, on the other hand, have been most obliging of OW Sapphire during my Australian travels. Warmly welcomed to QPs, and of course Club/Business check-ins (even, in one strange instance, when only my QFF Bronze number was on the booking!)

It's curious, actually. On the ground, I get a surly and entirely unhelpful service from BA (encounters with ticketing staff recently have been especially unfortunate), while QF are friendly, warm and eminently helpful.

Conversely, in the air (always economy for me I'm afraid), I am hard pressed to think of a bad experience on BA. On QF domestic however, I've found the staff can be a bit brusque and ascerbic. Maybe I have a Y-class inferiority complex?

Swings and roundabouts I suppose.

What he said.

The crib sheet has 2 black cards - Platinum and Chairman's lounge - so the bleedin' obvious is on it for the agent.

I have had issues with BA twice regarding lounge access. At SFO I just walked into the F "lounge" aka room even after being told I couldn't use it. I replied "sounds like a challenge to me". I had already had my civil request for a free bump to F from J with the logic "if I like it, I might purchase a F ticket in future". The lounge dragon didn't share my logic, nor did she stop me from using the F room.

The other time (same trip) was out of Munich when the check in dragon and I had a stonking argument over: a) what class I was travelling, b) priority tags and c) lounge access.

Firstly she claimed I was travelling in WHY when my ticket clearly stated D for all sectors and we had pre-allocated J seats. After 15 minutes of argueing she conceeded and let us "have our seats because she didnt want to argue anymore". The she refused to give us priority tags or access to the lounge. No reason given.

As soon as I got on board (literally as soon as I was in the entrance of the plane) I made the CSM fill in a complaint form. He had our bags retrieved from the hold, tagged and then proceeded to get us drunk on champagne. At one stage offering to write a note explaining to our LHR-SYD crew to let us travel and to get us wheelchairs so we didnt have to walk.

I am really sorry you didnt get to go to the BA F lounge at LHR as it is very nice.
The pre dinner option is fantastic.

I went through LHR T4 twice in June and both times walked unchecked into the Concorde Lounge! (QP flying J)

There was noone checking tickets at the lounge entrance, so in I went.

On this fated trip, I did ask to see the lounge guide and written accross the page was a "NO ONEWORLD ACCESS" when I complained again after writing the first post they still would not budge, so I told them I had already put comments on a website for everyone to see, they then gave in. I walked around and I was the ONLY person in there!!

BA also lost my luggage on that sector, we were going on a cruise, and you can imagine doing a seabourn cruise without any luggage. No BA EVER AGAIN! got my bags back at Heathrow on the return flight from Nice. I wonder if it had something to do with my argument in the lounge!!!!!!!

I had a similar problem at LAX - although this was not supposedly based on OW privileges as it was a QF lounge and I am QF WP. I was incensed and spoke to the duty manager who also refused to budge. I will be writing to QF at the first opportunity - and will post the details in the QF forum.

I was there on Aug 8 and no problems getting access with one guest