Originally Posted by
Stuttgart21
To put it verbosely, they care more about avoiding bankruptcy than about your opinion as an elite customer.
Sure, if it was financially viable, you'd like to make your loyal and frequent customers happy by providing lounge access and other perks. But what's the point in keeping customers happy if you are insolvent before winter 20/21 is over? Keep in mind many hotels and airlines are still at +/-30 percent of their pre-coronavirus capacity utilization. Nowadays, avoiding a liquidity crisis trumps binding existing customers to your business over the long term.
Most travel companies will find that alienating your absolute best customers is a really good way to hasten that bankruptcy. They are the ones bringing in the serious revenue. A single FTer could easily bring a Canary Wharf hotel £200-300 per night for 4 nights each week... Very hard to survive if dozens of similar customers realise that the DT and a local pub is an acceptable alternative.