I wouldn't want to intrude on Tom's privacy, but this is uncharted territory, and I am curious about a few things.
First, the articles (presumably for journalistic purposes) touted how he'd always get upgraded for life. Is this just an uninformed way of saying that as a GS (and maybe there's tiers of GS) he'd likely get upgrades, or is it more literally that whenever he books a flight, he gets put up front no matter what, regardless of upgrade inventory? In other words, are we ever going to see "STU/T" on the upgrade monitors? (perhaps in a different color to mean "forget it, you're not getting past me"
)
Second, the articles mention after flying 10M miles, he has 50M FF miles (and presumably he's spent some over the years). Even with elite and cabin bonuses, I'm unsure how you get that high. Do GS get a higher elite bonus (200% 300%?). Is this just a lifetime of Elite Choice Awards or lucky use of double/triple miles offers? Does Tom buy Award Accelerator?