Travel briefs

Payback time for cruise lines

Carnival Corp., the world's largest cruise operator, is giving $40 million in refunds to customers nationwide who were hit with a fuel surcharge of $5 per person, per day, after they booked their trips.

The Florida Attorney General's Office had pursued cruise companies after it received more than 300 complaints about the fee added by several cruise operators last fall after travelers had made reservations.

The Carnival settlement affects more than 1.1 million bookings — the number of people affected was not immediately available. Royal Caribbean earlier agreed to refund such surcharges.

Carnival is the parent company of Carnival Cruise Lines, Costa Cruises, Cunard Line, Seattle-based Holland America Line, Princess Cruises and The Yachts of Seabourn.

Travelers can find out about refunds through their cruise line or travel agent. The refund doesn't apply if the cruise lines had told passengers about surcharges at the time of booking.

Road work could clog I-5 in Bellingham

If you're planning to travel on Interstate 5 through Bellingham, be ready for major backups because of a repaving project that began last week. Crews are closing one lane of I-5 in each direction at night and on weekends for repaving of the road and offramps — and delays are likely on I-5 between Samish Way and Sunset Drive in the center of Bellingham.

The roadwork affects three miles of the freeway and is expected to take about two months.

For the next week, lanes are expected to be closed Sunday through Thursday nights from 8 p.m. to 6 a.m. There will be a weekend-long closure of one lane in each direction Friday- April 14, plus three other weekend closures.

To get more information — including a graph showing the best and worst times to drive that part of I-5 and a map of the construction area — see the Washington State Department of Transportation Web site: www.wsdot.wa.gov/Projects/I5/36thStToSlaterRdRepairs/

Aloha Airlines says final goodbye

Aloha Airlines has gone under, a victim of cutthroat competition and soaring fuel prices among airlines that serve Hawaii, especially on inter-island flights.

Its demise — the last passenger flight was Monday — leaves employees out of work and some travelers financially stuck if they paid for tickets in cash or by check. Credit-card payment gives passengers some financial protection if an airline stops flying, thanks to federal fair-credit laws.

Aloha had been flying in Hawaii for 61 years, and had service to the mainland U.S., too (but not Seattle).

Now, Delta's adding on all sorts of new fees

Prepare to pay more if you're flying soon, as the nation's airlines, struggling with higher fuel costs, boost fees for everything from letting children fly alone to booking some frequent-flier travel on the phone or checking a second piece of luggage.

Delta, the nation's third-largest carrier, is the latest to hit customers with a long list of new fees.

The airline boosted its unaccompanied-minor fee — the charge to transport a child between the ages of 5-14 flying alone — from $50 to $100 each way on nonstop flights, the same has it has been charging for connecting flights.

Frequent fliers will be charged a $25 "handling fee" for award tickets booked on the phone with a Delta representative (but not online) that include a segment on a partner airline, such as Alaska or Northwest. That's on top of an increase from $20 to $25 for booking any type of ticket on the telephone.

Delta, based in Atlanta, also said it will boost the charge from $75 to $100 for taking a pet in the cabin, and will raise the cost of taking an oversized bag from $100 to $150.

Northwest, United Airlines and Delta announced earlier that they would begin charging some domestic passengers $25 each way to check a second bag.

Travel staff and news services