Vietnam Airlines vs VietJet Air (2026): Which Should You Actually Book?

Two airlines fight over the same Vietnamese sky — one hands you a hot meal and a seatback screen on the cheapest ticket, the other hands you a 45-euro fare and a tray you have to pay for.

This is the rare head-to-head where both carriers are based in the same country, often fly the same routes, and could not be more different in philosophy. Vietnam Airlines is the SkyTeam flag carrier — a genuine four-star, full-service legacy line flying a young (seven-year-average) fleet of 787-9s and A350s, with 43 destinations and a proper Business cabin. VietJet is the loud, fast-growing low-cost challenger out of Tan Son Nhat, all bright fares and bundled extras, now stretching into wide-body A330 territory. The numbers tell the story before you even board: VietJet shows up in our data 654 times with a median around €284, versus Vietnam Airlines’ 202 observations at a €404 median. One is the cheap default; the other is the comfort upgrade. Which one you book depends entirely on what your cheapest economy seat actually includes.

Side-by-side, on real numbers

The figures below come from the live fares aifly tracks plus current published policy and our sourced cabin data — not vague “Standard / Standard” filler.

Comfort/fleet/OTP from sourced 2025–26 ratings; bag and fee figures reflect each airline’s cheapest bookable fare and can change — always confirm at booking.

The cheapest fare: what your money actually buys

This is the whole ballgame for deal-hunters, and it’s where the two airlines split hardest. Vietnam Airlines’ entry-level Economy Saver is a real legacy fare — it bundles a 10kg cabin allowance, a 23kg checked bag (bumped to 2×23kg on North America routes), a hot meal and a seatback screen. You pay extra to pick a seat, but the bag is in the box. VietJet’s cheapest Eco bundle is the opposite animal: 7kg carry-on only, no checked bag, no meal, no free seat — everything is an add-on. So the sticker gap lies. A VietJet Eco fare €60 cheaper evaporates the instant you add a checked bag and a sandwich; on routes where you’d check luggage anyway, Vietnam Airlines is frequently the better total price despite the higher headline. VietJet wins outright only when you’re genuinely travelling light and short.

A VietJet Eco fare €60 cheaper evaporates the instant you add a checked bag and a sandwich.

Network & hubs: same country, different ambitions

Both fly out of Hanoi (HAN) and Ho Chi Minh City (SGN), and on paper they’re neck-and-neck — Vietnam Airlines lists 43 destinations over 132 routes, VietJet 38 over 127. But the shape differs. Vietnam Airlines is the SkyTeam flag carrier with the long, prestige legacy routes — Amsterdam, the planned and resumed European and North American hauls, the kind of network a national airline is obligated to fly even when it’s thin. VietJet is built around dense, high-frequency Asia-Pacific volume: India (Bangalore), China (Guangzhou), Korea, Japan, and a hard push into Australia (Perth, Melbourne) on its new A330s. For a European reader, the practical read is simple — Vietnam Airlines connects you to and from Europe and North America directly under one ticket and one alliance, while VietJet is the airline you stitch into a regional itinerary once you’re already in Asia. Different jobs, same map.

Cabin & comfort: a four-star product vs a clever budget cabin

Vietnam Airlines is a legitimate Skytrax four-star carrier flying one of Asia’s younger fleets — a seven-year average age, with the 787-9 and A350 doing the heavy lifting. Economy runs a 32-inch pitch and a 17-inch width with seatback IFE as standard: a genuinely comfortable long-haul economy product, not a discount one. VietJet plays a different game well. Its Eco/Deluxe cabins are ultra-low-cost at heart — roughly 29-inch pitch, no seatback screens — but the airline has earned a reputation for breaking the ULCC mould with tidy A330 wide-bodies and a flat-bed SkyBoss Business product (180-degree recline) on long-haul. The honest verdict: for the cheapest economy seat on a flight over four hours, Vietnam Airlines’ extra three inches of pitch and that seatback screen are exactly what make the difference between arriving rested and arriving wrecked.

Food & the things that quietly matter on a 6-hour flight

Here’s a perk that doesn’t show on a fare-comparison page but absolutely shapes the journey. Vietnam Airlines includes a hot meal in every economy fare — a mix of Vietnamese dishes and international options, complimentary even on the Saver ticket. VietJet’s Eco fare includes nothing; food is a buy-on-board add-on, and there’s no in-flight wi-fi to keep you occupied either. On a 90-minute domestic hop, who cares — you wouldn’t eat anyway. But on a four-to-six-hour international leg, a free meal plus a screen is a real, daily-life difference that a €40 fare gap doesn’t capture. It’s the single clearest example of why the cheapest VietJet ticket and the cheapest Vietnam Airlines ticket are not the same product wearing different prices.

One hands you a hot meal and a seatback screen on the cheapest ticket; the other hands you a 45-euro fare and a tray you pay for.

Connectivity & the Starlink question

Neither airline is a wi-fi star yet, but they’re moving at very different speeds. Vietnam Airlines has officially launched in-flight internet and expects to finish fitting its A350 fleet through 2026 — a paid but affordable broadband product, and a meaningful head start. Vietnam approved Starlink for the country in early 2026, so satellite-grade connectivity is plausibly coming, but Vietnam Airlines has not announced a Starlink rollout, so treat “fast free wi-fi” as aspiration, not a feature you can book today. VietJet, by contrast, offers no in-flight wi-fi at all on its mainline cabins. If staying connected over the South China Sea matters to you, this is a clean win for the flag carrier — and one of the few categories where the gap is simply binary rather than a matter of degree.

Reliability, safety & points

Vietnam Airlines posted a 78% on-time rate (Cirium 2025) — respectable, though below the best Asian peers, and one of its genuine weak spots versus the punctuality leaders. VietJet’s published OTP is thinner, but it carries a solid operational and safety reputation for a fast-growing low-cost carrier. On loyalty, the split mirrors everything else: Vietnam Airlines’ Lotus Club sits inside SkyTeam, with Lotus Lounges at the major Vietnamese airports and SkyPriority/partner reciprocity worldwide — the choice if you collect miles or want lounge access across a global alliance. VietJet runs SkyJoy, a slick standalone program (four tiers, 15M+ members) that’s excellent within VietJet’s own world but earns and burns nowhere else. For a frequent international flyer, the alliance backing makes Vietnam Airlines’ points materially more useful.

So — which one?

Frequently asked questions

Fares, fleet and policy details verified July 2026 and reflect each airline’s cheapest bookable fare unless noted; programmes and rollouts change — always confirm at booking.