JetBlue Lets Family And Friends Earn Frequent Flier Points Together

If you’re one of those travelers who flies every now and then but not super often, you’ve probably all but given up hope of ever racking up enough frequent flier points for a free journey. Now jetBlue is giving less frequent travelers a better chance of earning a free flight by letting them pool their reward miles with family or friends.

The airline says its TrueBlue loyalty program will allow a designated group of travelers to accumulate points together. A family who is pooling its points can include a maximum of two adults aged 21 and over and up to five children. But friends who aren’t related can also decide to form a group for the sake of collecting miles. And you don’t have to share all your points either –- family or group members can choose to contribute a percentage of their miles to the group pool. Anyone who is part of the group can then use the points towards an award flight.JetBlue says the new point-sharing option now removes all the obstacles when it comes to redeeming an award flight. The carrier says it doesn’t have any blackout dates and loyalty points don’t expire, meaning families have better chance of accumulating enough miles to make that free trip a reality.

Video of the Day: Cruise ship belly flop contest

I’ve never been on cruise but we cover them pretty extensively here at Gadling. Everything I know about the cruise industry I’ve learned from Saturday Night Live. So, you can imagine my confusion when I saw this video posted online today. Apparently, Royal Caribbean ships have belly flop contests. And, apparently some people film them. From the massive crowd watching each flop as if it’s Game 7 of the World Series to the painful water landings to the ultra-perky MC, this video has everything that you need to either brighten your day or send you into a shame spiral after you realize that you scored every single belly flop as if you were an Olympic judge. We apologize for stealing ten minutes of your life.

Photo of the day – Stormtroopers in Las Vegas

Have you ever walked down the street and seen something amazing and cursed yourself for not having a camera? Lucky for us, Flickr user mciccone640 had his camera and shot today’s Photo of the Day of couple of robots stormtroopers* in Las Vegas. I wonder if there was a convention in town or if the guys were just wearing costumes for luck in the casinos. Perhaps a theme wedding? Hope they had a lucky night (going to the bathroom couldn’t have been easy), no matter the reason.

*This PotD was originally called Robots in Las Vegas until my husband informed me that they were, in fact, storm troopers and not robots. Sorry. Still can’t be easy for them to go to the bathroom.

Capture any unusual sights on the street your travels? Add your pix to the Gadling Flickr pool and we may use one for a future Photo of the Day.

Photo of the day (11.4.10)


How’s this for a pool with a view? Flickr user and friend-of-Gadling Paul Brady took in this scene in Singapore from the Marina Bay Sands Hotel, one of the world’s most expensive new hotels. We’ve seen professional shots of the pool before, but we always like seeing an untouched, real life shot. Imagine having a dip here on a hazy day, and when the clouds disappear: BAM! The whole city is in front of you. The 650-foot wide infinity pool is on the 55th floor, making it the highest outdoor pool in the world. The pool is just open to hotel guests, but anyone can buy a ticket to the SkyPark and take in the vista from the observation platform.

Take any pictures of amazing city views on your travels, from a pool or otherwise? Upload them to the Gadling Flickr group and we might just use one for our next Photo of the Day.