I was grouping with a friend, playing a knight while she was playing a consular, and I noticed that some of her class stories I could see, watching as an observer, while others I could not, and I just stood around twiddling my thumbs while she engaged in some private conversation.

We had planned on playing these character together exclusively, but are concerned about how some of these class specific story conversations appear to lock out the other class from even seeing it.

Why do only only some do this, but not others? Is there potentially something we're doing wrong? I noticed that in side quest conversations, initiating one too fast locks the other player out. Is there something similar we may be doing that locks us out of the story based scenes? I'm really hoping there's a solution, because watching my friend stand around with a chat box over her head is not my idea of a good time.

Sometimes the class stories involve taking personal holo-calls. These are not something another member of your party can see, unfortunately.

If you're being locked out of planet mission conversations, it's possible that someone's clicking "Start Conversation" before everyone is there or has selected to holo-call in.

when you go in a phased area (the red wall that you cannot pass turns into blue once your friend enters it) you'll be in spectator mode, and you'll be able to see your friends' cutscene.

However, a few cutscenes happen outside of a phased area, such as the holocalls that Tatile mentionned above, and even NPCs your friend talks to "out in the world". In these cases, you won't be in a separate area so you won't be "invited in spectator mode".

That's unfortunate but as far as I know there is no workaround.

What I did while leveling with a friend was to summarize her what happened to my character.