Vietjet Air is Vietnam's largest low-cost carrier, and depending on how you count, its largest airline by domestic seat capacity. Founded in 2007 and flying since 2011, it runs a young Airbus A320-family fleet — roughly 100+ aircraft including A320s, A321s, A321neos, and a small number of A330s — across a dense domestic network plus a growing international one. The bikini-flight-attendant calendars and Nguyen Thi Phuong Thao's billionaire-founder story got the headlines. The actual product is more prosaic: cheap fares, paid extras, and variable reliability.
It is the right airline for a specific kind of trip. It is the wrong one for others.
What does a Vietjet ticket actually include?
The cheapest fare class — "Eco" — gets you a seat assignment (often toward the back), 7 kg of carry-on, and nothing else. No checked bag. No meal. No water. No seat selection. Want any of that? Pay. This is normal LCC behavior; just don't be surprised when the $22 Hanoi-Da Nang fare becomes $48 after you add a bag, pick a seat, and buy a sandwich.
Fare bundles ("Deluxe", "SkyBoss") combine the extras at a discount. They're sometimes worth it, sometimes not. Do the math at booking.
Cabin classes
| Class | What you get |
|---|---|
| Eco | Seat only, 7 kg carry-on |
| Deluxe | 20 kg checked, seat select, meal, flex changes |
| SkyBoss / Business | Front-row wider seats, lounge on select routes, priority everything, 30 kg checked |
SkyBoss on a domestic A321 is essentially the first row of economy with a curtain and a meal, not a true business class. Don't pay international-business prices for it.
Is Vietjet actually unreliable?
It has a reputation problem, and the reputation is half-earned. Published on-time performance tends to sit in the 60s-70s percent on peak days — materially worse than Vietnam Airlines. The issue is schedule density: Vietjet runs aircraft hard with short turnarounds, so a one-hour delay at 7am cascades into a three-hour delay by 6pm.
What this means in practice: if you book the first flight of the day, you'll usually be fine. If you book the last flight of the day during wet season (May-October) or Tet week, build in buffer or accept you might sleep in the terminal.
Safety-wise, it is fine. A young Airbus fleet, IOSA registration, standard international oversight. Delays and canceled flights are a customer-service problem, not a safety one.
How to actually book Vietjet
- Vietjetair.com (desktop). Cheapest and clearest. You see every add-on as a line item.
- Traveloka or 12Go. Occasionally $1–3 cheaper after promo, but refunds go through them, which is slower.
- The Vietjet app. Fine for check-in; pushier on upsells than the desktop site.
Watch for these fare traps:
- "Ticket price" ≠ final price. VAT, service fees, and seat/bag extras add 20-40%.
- Carry-on weight is enforced. Gate agents weigh bags. Over 7 kg and they charge airport-counter rates.
- Sale fares are non-refundable. "Promo" and "Eco" fares evaporate if you can't fly.
Routes Vietjet is good for
- Hanoi to Da Nang — dozens of daily flights, fares often under $30 one-way on sale. Perfect LCC use case.
- Ho Chi Minh City to Phu Quoc — the cheapest way to reach the island, usually $25-45 with a bag.
- Hanoi to Nha Trang, Dalat, Quy Nhon — thin routes where Vietjet often undercuts the competition significantly.
- Regional international — Bangkok, Singapore, Kuala Lumpur at proper LCC prices if you book two months out.
For the full cross-country comparison, see our domestic flights guide and the getting around Vietnam overview.
When to skip Vietjet
Skip it when:
- You have a tight international connection the same day.
- You're flying the last flight of the day in typhoon season.
- You're catching a cruise or one-time event.
- You have two checked bags — the bag fees close most of the price gap.
- You're 190cm+ tall. Vietjet's A321 seat pitch is 29 inches. It is not comfortable.
For those cases, Vietnam Airlines is worth the $15-30 premium. Or take an overnight Vietnam train on sectors like Hanoi-Hue and skip the airport entirely.
The honest verdict
Vietjet is exactly what it says on the tin: an LCC that flies you for less money than the flag carrier, on reasonably new aircraft, with paid extras and patchy punctuality. Book it with clear eyes. Pack light. Screenshot your fare breakdown. Arrive early. If it runs on time — and most flights do — you'll have saved real money for the same 90 minutes in the sky. If it doesn't, you'll understand why Vietnamese travelers grumble about it and still keep booking.
Limitations
VietJet's flight-cancellation rate is meaningfully higher than Vietnam Airlines on the same routes — independent on-time-performance tracking shows the budget carrier with roughly 2-3x the delay frequency in peak season, and 2+ hour delays are common on the busiest routes (HCMC-Hanoi, HCMC-Da Nang). Workaround: if your itinerary has tight onward connections (cruise embarkation, international flight, time-sensitive ground transfer), pay the $15-25 premium for Vietnam Airlines on that segment; reserve VietJet for flexibility-tolerant segments.
The basic-fare baggage allowance (7 kg cabin-only) is strictly enforced at the gate — visible overweight is reweighed and charged at airport rates ($20-35) which are 2-3x the pre-purchased online rate. Workaround: pre-purchase 15-20 kg checked baggage at booking time ($8-15); weigh your carry-on at home before departure; or upgrade to a Deluxe or Eco-Flex fare that includes checked baggage if multiple onward flights are involved.