I think the bigger issue was that he wasn't a customer (they provided the service pro bono), not that Akamai wouldn't keep a customer that got hit with such an attack.

Traditionally, journalists and celebrities getting freebies get /better/ service than regular paying customers.

I don't see why being pro bono would matter in an established company?

If you're under attack, try us out. We'll aim to surprise you in the most unsurprising and dull way possible, by keeping your site online throughout.

Cloudflare has this on their website: "600Gbps: Largest DDoS attack stopped" - https://www.cloudflare.com/under-attack-hotline/ But I suppose attacks may differ in other ways that Gbps.

If I remember what cloudflare's article said, that 600gbps attack was a reflection/amplification attack, which for them is likely easier to filter out then just large amounts of direct DDoS traffic, which is what this was evidently.