Drappier is not that bad, their brut at least is ok. Not for brand snobs, but I would guess that it holds up in any blind tasting among the large majority of the crowd that uses airport lounges and gets all excited to have free champagne. Although admittedly their Rosé is not their best piece of work.

Gruet is "mid segment". If it was a car it would be a Seat or Skoda, not a BMW, let alone a RR. In a blind tasting against more prestigious houses it would be judged as significantly less exciting, even for untrained palates.

I agree that any connoisseur of Champagne does not get excited about this selection. But on the other hand, these are airport lounges, where you have people that usually drink beer or coke and don't buy Champagne themselves regularly, some of them fill their trinkets with champagne so they can have it "to go", etc - I am not sure whether serving Krug or Billecard-Salmon wouldn't be wasted on them.