How does a lounge measure your access time?

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My wife and I are due to fly out of OR Tambo airport in Feb. We arrive on an internal flight at 14:15 and leave on a Virgin Atlantic at 19:30, so there is a 5 hour layover and I want to buy Lounge access as a sort of xmas present. The lounges seem to say you have 3 or 4 hours stay maximum, and I presume they use the 19:30 departure time to measure it, so would I be right in saying the earliest we could gain access is 16:30 (3 hours) or can we arrive slightly earlier on the basis that we would actually hope to be at the Gate a while before the 19:30 departure. Sorry if its an obvious question.

[davefl]

They can’t measure how long you stay. Sometimes they’re really arsey and don’t let you in until x hours before your flight but it’s dependent on the individual on the desk so you won’t know until you arrive.

Boarding generally closes 30 or 45 mins before your flight time, so pull that entry time by a commensurate amount.

OR-T isn’t a bad airport to wander around so I wouldn’t worry about it. I flew out of there BA 1st last month and honestly the lounge was nothing to get excited about. Much preferred Tirana’s sole business lounge.

[The real Swiss Tony]

davefl wrote:

Boarding generally closes 30 or 45 mins before your flight time, so pull that entry time by a commensurate amount.

I think this is an ambitious assumption.

[C2K77]

You can always try to play a little fast and lose with the Data you give them. Depending on whether there’s an automatic reconciliation part to the lounges system it may not pick up VS1234 actually departing at 19:30. You’ll know if when trying to book it argues when you put in say 18:15. If it doesn’t then as others have said. Its not like they take a picture and your name then come hunt you down if not out 5 minutes past the 4th hour.

There is a social consideration that if it’s an at capacity lounge generally then your presence could deny others if there’s an effective, live capacity tracker. But again that’s doubtful and why you tend to get refused for early arrival as that’s the only practical way of managing guests.

Throw in an earlier ( departure) time and if neither the system or staff pick up on it then you’re golden. If they do then an hour in a tat filled,. overpriced gift shop or a tavern will pass quickly enough