Hello folks,

This is my personal experience with Zen Travels while planning and executing my recent trip to Nepal after 5 years. Hope it will help others in determining how an attempt to buy cheap air tickets to visit home land after a long time might end up being costly beyond one’s imagination.

I decided to buy the tickets from these guys as I had heard good words from my friends and booked the tickets for myself, my wife and my infant. I followed up with them and made sure about the dates, the reservations etc. Finally dates were confirmed and the payment was made using credit card. They mentioned that they would issue e-tickets. I checked my email and I got so-called E-tickets. Immediately, picked up the phone and called Zen to make sure that the e-tickets that I received in the email were all I needed. I asked again and again to make sure. The guy on the phone said 'you don't need to worry, on the departure day go to the airport and just give them the booking no. and everything will be fine". In the email, the itinerary was there, and so were the names of all three travelers. My wife and I were traveling with infant for the first time and were a little nervous so we had to make sure everything was fine. Everything seemed fine indeed.

After almost 3 weeks the departure day came. Somehow managed the ride to airport, and at the check in counter, I noticed that the lady was still looking for something ....upon asking she said that she was looking for paper ticket for my infant. I told the lady 'this is what I received from my travel agent'. She insisted that I needed to have paper ticket for my infant. She asked me to call the travel agent. She further said ‘looks like they screwed up you guys big time. Who did you make the booking with?’ I dialed Zen's no. at DC. No one picked up the phone at first, then finally someone picked up the phone from Nepal (They use VOIP). Even though I dial DC’s no. the call is received from Nepal.  I explained what happened. The guy on the phone claimed that they had sent me the paper ticket. “How come I didn’t receive it?” I asked him.

The flight would leave at 4:30 PM and it was 3:00 PM already. The lady at the desk said 'I want to talk with your travel agent'. I gave her the phone....she spoke with the guy at Zen ...he said something which the lady could not understand despite trying again and again. I grabbed the phone and talked with the guy but I didn't see the situation get any better. I was running out of time. The lady gave me two options; either buy a new ticket for the infant and pay $948 for the same or talk with the travel agent and arrange something else and travel on a different date. She also said ‘even if you buy the ticket for that price you won’t get a seat for the infant since it is the last minute. Your child has to sit on your lap’. Come on now, even after paying so much, my child won’t get a seat? On top of that I already paid Zen for the infant's ticket when I initially bought the ticket 3 weeks ago.

“Hurry up, you need to make decision now”, she said. I thought “I’ll deal with Zen later”, and decided to buy the ticket as I was going home after 5 years. There was no turning back. She checked in our baggage in a hurry. I paid $948 for the ticket (still have the receipt). Then we rushed for the gate…….too late…we realized that we had just missed the flight.  

Called Zen again …..spoke with the owner of Zen in KTM, he apologized….however, the damage was done….he said the next flight was after 5 days. Guess what, I had to stay home…waste those 5 days out of my vacation which I could have spent in Nepal. I mean, how badly can someone screw you up?? I told Zen’s boss ‘because of your mistake I lost my 5 days which I could have spent in Nepal.’ He simply said ‘can’t you request your boss to extend your leave’. Yeah right, I work for my uncle who understands my situation and pities me. My friend, your leave has to be approved by your Manager first and then the Vice President approves it. I had maxed out on my PTO. I had saved all those days since last year.

After so much hassle, my wife thought she had taken too much without complaining, so she requested for a little consideration with Zen’s owner that she was traveling with an infant for the first time and if he could upgrade us to business class from Bahrain to Kathmandu. The owner said “if we do that we’ll be out of business”. I was like what?? Where is customer service? No customer service at all?

The next day….after much discussion and follow up the paper ticket arrived by FedEx.

Oh, not to forget, even though we missed the flight…three of our luggage somehow made all the way to Paris. One was missing and we picked the other one up at the baggage services at our local airport. After three days three of our luggage arrived at our local airport. One, however, was still missing…upon checking with AA…….after almost 3 days they confirmed that it was on the way to KTM. Phew!!! Thanks to Zen again!!! Just 1 luggage was lucky enough to make it through to KTM.

Came back home that day with bitter feeling…the owner of Zen did at one point mention that they had issued the paper ticket for my child but sent to a wrong person by mistake!!!!! Where is responsibility? Where is Accountability?

Finally, we were flying from Bahrain to KTM but we didn’t see us upgraded to business class. This gets much better…we reached KTM at last. Guess what the day we arrived in KTM was, it was Nepal ‘bandh’. Thanks to Zen Travels again. Had we flown 5 days earlier as per our original schedule, we would not have been in that situation.

After few days I checked my email in KTM, Zen wrote saying they could not upgrade us to business class. So I told myself, maybe they’ll do while going back to Bahrain. So after 3 weeks, it was time to come back to US. Again…..no business class upgrade. Finally came to the US. There was an apology in the email saying again they could not do it. Then it further read ‘please accept 100 dollar JC Penny gift card for all the trouble that was caused to you’.

My only question to the reader here, what would you do with a $100 JC Penny gift card from Zen? I am simply not finding anything to do with it.