Low cost carriers on both sides of the Pacific are racing into 2026 with a flurry of aggressive promo codes that slash base fares but leave taxes and add ons intact, as Spirit, Frontier, JetBlue and Vietjet jostle to lock in price conscious travelers early in the year.
A New Wave of Base Fare Discounts Hits the Market
Across the United States and Asia, ultra low cost and hybrid carriers are flooding the market with fresh promo codes that target only the base fare component of an airline ticket. Spirit, Frontier, JetBlue and Vietjet have each unveiled campaigns that promise anywhere from modest double digit savings to eye catching claims of up to 100 percent off certain economy tickets. The flurry of deals arrives just as leisure demand remains resilient and many travelers are looking to stretch their budgets for spring and shoulder season trips.
Industry analysts say the timing is deliberate. After several years of strong post pandemic demand and higher average ticket prices, airlines are using targeted promo codes to stimulate bookings during off peak days, encourage early commitment for later in the year and steer customers toward routes where they are eager to grow market share. For travelers, this translates into a confusing but potentially rewarding landscape in which a headline percentage cut does not always tell the full story.
The common thread among the latest offers from Spirit, Frontier, JetBlue and Vietjet is that the discount applies only to the base fare. Taxes, regulatory fees and many carrier imposed charges remain unchanged. Understanding that structure and the fine print on travel dates, blackout periods and eligible routes is now essential for any traveler hoping to capture the full value of these headline grabbing promotions.
Spirit Targets Key U.S. Routes With Time Limited Codes
In the United States, Spirit has leaned into short booking windows and narrowly targeted fare cuts. Recent promotions have focused on specific origin cities and corridors, such as Atlanta to South Florida, with discounts framed as a fixed percentage off the underlying base fare. In practice, this can transform already low fares into compelling deals for travelers who can travel light and who are flexible about midweek departures.
Spirit’s campaign structure mirrors its earlier Travel Tuesday push, where a steep percentage discount was tied to advanced purchase rules, narrow valid travel days and blackout dates around peak holiday periods. As before, the discount is confined to the base fare and excludes government taxes and Spirit specific charges for options like checked baggage, seat selection and priority boarding. For a single one way ticket, the absolute dollar savings can be modest, but families or groups booking multiple seats on the same itinerary may see much more tangible benefits.
Travel advisors tracking the latest Spirit codes emphasize that routing and day of week restrictions still do much of the work behind the scenes. The most attractive fares typically surface on Tuesdays and Wednesdays, or during the early portion of a promotional travel window, while high demand Fridays and Sundays remain priced closer to normal levels. For budget conscious flyers able to shift their plans by a day or two, however, Spirit’s current generation of promo codes can undercut many mainline competitors on domestic routes across the Southeast, Caribbean and Latin America.
Frontier Leans on Ultra Low Cost Tactics and Ancillary Revenue
Frontier has also rejoined the promo code fray, extending its long standing strategy of eye catching base fares paired with a robust menu of ancillary fees. While individual codes tend to change frequently, the structure is similar to its rivals: percentage based discounts on base fares for select domestic and near international routes, tied to short booking periods and off peak travel days.
For travelers, the key with Frontier’s promo codes is to recognize how quickly extras can erode headline savings. The discount generally will not touch charges for carry on bags, checked luggage, seat assignments or early boarding. Customers who travel with only a personal item and are comfortable letting the airline assign their seat at check in can capture most of the promised discount. Those who need more flexibility or comfort will see their total trip cost climb closer to that of a traditional carrier, even if the initial fare appears substantially lower.
Frontier has framed its current promotions as a way to fill aircraft on growing leisure routes, particularly from mid continent focus cities to Florida, the Caribbean and mountain destinations. The carrier’s recent emphasis on subscription style products, such as all you can fly passes, fits alongside these promo codes as another lever to lock in future travel. For occasional flyers who simply want a cheap one off ticket, carefully timed use of a base fare promo can still deliver solid value, provided they understand what is and is not included in the ultra low cost model.
JetBlue’s Rare 35 Percent Base Fare Sale Raises the Stakes
Among the four carriers, JetBlue’s latest promotions stand out for both their scale and their relative simplicity. In late 2025, the New York based airline launched a Travel Tuesday sale built around the promo code SAVE35, offering 35 percent off base fares on a wide swath of its domestic and Caribbean network for travel in early 2026. While the window to book was limited to just a few days, the travel period stretched from early January through mid March, covering prime weeks for winter getaways and family visits.
The JetBlue sale came with notable restrictions. The discount applied only to base fares, not to taxes or fees, and excluded premium Mint cabins, transatlantic flights, award tickets and packaged vacations. Fridays and Sundays, which are often the highest demand days, were blacked out, pushing deal seekers toward midweek departures. Even with those limitations, the ability to apply the same promo code repeatedly on nonstop routes allowed frequent travelers to stitch together multiple short trips at significantly reduced fares.
Current partner and third party promotions layered on top of this activity underscore JetBlue’s broader strategy around base fare focused discounts. Some online travel agencies are advertising additional percentage cuts on JetBlue tickets when booked through their own channels, again targeting the base fare alone and capping the maximum dollar savings. For travelers, it is a reminder that checking both direct and indirect booking channels, and comparing total trip cost including baggage policies, can yield unexpected differences even when the same underlying base fare code is in play.
Vietjet Pushes Deep Discounts Across Vietnam and Asia
In Asia, Vietjet has rolled out some of the most dramatic sounding promotions of any of the four carriers, with campaigns promising up to 100 percent off Eco class base fares on selected days. A recent Double Day event on February 2 offered travelers the opportunity to secure Eco tickets with the promo code tied to the campaign, reducing the base fare to zero on both domestic and international routes for travel stretching from March through the end of 2026. Taxes and fees still applied, but the marketing message centered on the possibility of booking a seat for only the non fare components.
Those headline grabbing offers sit alongside a broader series of promotions focused on Vietjet’s higher fare categories. The carrier has been running 30 percent discounts on Deluxe base fares covering a long travel period across 2026, via short, intense booking windows in January and follow up phases in key outbound markets such as India. Other campaigns, including a major year end sale announced in late 2025, have promised up to 100 percent off Eco fares on millions of tickets booked with specific promo codes for travel between early January and late May 2026.
The real world experience of travelers trying to use these Vietjet codes has been mixed. Some customers report successfully finding very low base fares on competitive domestic routes such as Hanoi to Da Nang, while others say they struggled to see any price difference when applying the codes, suggesting that the deepest discounts may be limited to specific flights, fare buckets or times of day. As in other markets, the recurring theme is that the discount applies only to the base fare, with airport charges, surcharges and other fees often making up the majority of the final ticket price.
How the Promo Codes Actually Work Behind the Headlines
Despite differences in geography and brand positioning, the promo code mechanics at Spirit, Frontier, JetBlue and Vietjet share several core characteristics. First, the percentage advertised always targets the base fare of an eligible ticket, not the taxes imposed by governments or the carrier imposed fees that now form a significant portion of many low cost airline receipts. In practice, this means that a 35 percent or even 100 percent discount figure may translate into a much smaller percentage cut in the final price a customer pays.
Second, almost all of the recent campaigns rely on narrow booking windows, often just one to three days, paired with a broader travel period. This structure allows airlines to generate a burst of booking activity and secure earlier revenue, while still controlling which days and flights actually carry the discounted seats. Blackout dates around local holidays, peak weekends and school breaks are standard, as are day of week limitations that push bargain hunters toward slower Tuesdays and Wednesdays.
Third, the promotions tend to exclude certain fare types or cabins. JetBlue’s SAVE35 offer did not apply to Mint business class or transatlantic routes, while low cost carriers in the United States typically reserve their deepest discounts for standard economy products and keep higher fare buckets untouched. Vietjet has gone a step further by running parallel campaigns for Eco and Deluxe products, using different promo codes and discount levels to shape demand across its network and cabins.
Comparing Value: Spirit vs Frontier vs JetBlue vs Vietjet
When comparing how these four airlines stack up, travelers should look beyond the headline discount and examine the full trip cost and experience. Spirit and Frontier, as archetypal ultra low cost carriers, often deliver the lowest starting fares on a narrow set of dates and routes, but they also apply some of the most granular fees on everything from carry on bags to printed boarding passes. A 20 percent base fare cut can be quickly overshadowed if a traveler needs multiple bags, prefers advance seat selection or changes plans after booking.
JetBlue, by contrast, positions itself as a customer friendly hybrid carrier, with more generous legroom, free snacks and a more flexible change fee policy on most fares. Its 35 percent base fare promotion for early 2026 was notable precisely because such deep codes are rare for the airline, and because the eligible network covered many nonstop routes that already enjoy strong demand. For many travelers, a slightly higher all in price on JetBlue may still represent better value than a rock bottom fare on a more bare bones rival once onboard experience and baggage policies are factored in.
Vietjet occupies a different space again, operating in high growth markets across Vietnam and Asia where price sensitivity is intense and competition from both full service and low cost airlines is fierce. Its willingness to advertise 100 percent base fare discounts on Eco tickets and 30 percent cuts on Deluxe fares reflects a strategy of stimulating demand well ahead of peak travel seasons and drawing price conscious travelers away from national carriers. However, feedback from passengers suggests that reliability, service standards and the complexity of the fare rules should also weigh into any value comparison, particularly for short visits or tight itineraries.
What Travelers Need to Know Before Booking
For travelers considering these promotions, a few practical steps can make the difference between a genuine bargain and an underwhelming saving. The first is to always compare the total price, not just the fare displayed before taxes and fees. Enter the promo code, add any baggage or seat extras you know you will need, and take the process to the final payment screen to see the true all in cost. Then run the same itinerary on competing airlines, including full service carriers, which at times may offer competitive basic economy fares once ancillaries are taken into account.
Second, read the fare rules for change, cancellation and schedule flexibility. Many promo code tickets are sold in fare classes that are highly restrictive, and while some airlines have permanently waived change fees on standard fares, the lowest promotional buckets may still carry penalties or offer only travel credits rather than refunds. Travelers booking far in advance for 2026 trips should consider how firm their plans really are before locking in nonrefundable tickets for a modest discount.
Third, track the booking and travel windows carefully. The current generation of Spirit, Frontier, JetBlue and Vietjet promotions are time limited, and in many cases the biggest savings are achieved by those who can book as soon as the sale opens. Seat inventory in the cheapest promotional buckets can disappear quickly, leaving only higher priced classes that dilute or erase the impact of the promo code. Signing up for airline newsletters or fare alerts, and checking credible travel news outlets, can help ensure that new promo code campaigns are spotted before they expire.
Finally, expectations matter. A 100 percent discount on the base fare does not mean a free flight once airport charges, fuel surcharges and service fees are added. Likewise, a 35 percent cut on a midrange JetBlue base fare may actually represent a better real world saving than a larger percentage discount on a rock bottom ultra low cost ticket with heavy baggage fees. By focusing on the net cost, the product offered and the reliability of the carrier, travelers can navigate the high profile promo code battles among Spirit, Frontier, JetBlue and Vietjet and decide which deals truly justify clicking the buy button.