If Virgin want to do boarding calls in the lounge, then they'd better get it right. Period.
But for my own sanity (and not having to go through the recovery processes of a new flight), I take charge of my own time. Which means I hardly rely on boarding calls - if they are there, bonus.
Not to mention that I've been in several lounges around the world - good lounges, good airlines -
no boarding calls. Thankfully, the FIDS do work most of the time, but:
- I always note the boarding time on my BP, and take that as the boarding time.
- Around boarding time (depending on how far to the gate the lounge is), if the boards don't show the flight is boarding, I ask at the desk for the flight status.
Otherwise, I usually leave around boarding time. Especially depending on whether it's international/domestic, and where in the world, there's often no reason to push your luck on boarding the flight. After all, we've all had a crack on about having to wait at the gate for close out and push back, because one tardy idiot is in the terminal, they can't find their luggage and they're not presenting themselves for boarding at the gate (then they turn up and they have to tell the baggage people to stop looking, shut up and close out).
As I said, if airlines want to do boarding calls, then at least they should do them properly. But I take my own precautionary steps in any lounge to make sure I make my flight on time, whether or not there are boarding calls or not. Some will argue that it the buck shouldn't stop at me, I should be served correctly by the airlines and that all I'm doing is wasting "good lounge time" by going to the gate, perhaps prematurely (e.g. in the case of a delay). In the end, as someone said, it's my responsibility to make sure I present myself for boarding at my flight - whether or not the airline (or lounge operator) is partly liable to answer for my inability to board the flight successfully is another thing, but rarely is an airline
fully liable for such an act. And their lack of making a boarding call whilst I'm not making any effort to monitor the time myself is not something I would call on as full liability (that is partial liability).