How do promo codes work on event tickets?

What the customer sees at ticket checkout, how discounts and BOGO are worked out, free orders, and when a code use goes back after a refund.

Ticket promotions come from the Promotions page, which is a Pro / Complete plan feature — a venue selling tickets through the standalone Tickets product alone doesn't have it (promo codes are one of the reasons to pair Tickets with a Pro plan). Where you have it, ticket promotions apply on your public event page. The customer sees a Have a promo code? box beside the ticket picker, types the code, and clicks Apply — the discount appears as its own line in the price summary ("Promo code SUMMER20 −£10.00") before they pay. The applied chip also shows the offer's honest boundaries where they exist: "Valid until 14 Jul 2026" and "One per customer".

How the discount is worked out

• Discounts apply to ticket prices only — paid add-ons always stay full price.
• If you pass the booking fee on to customers, it's recalculated on the discounted total, so a discounted order also carries a smaller fee.
• Buy one, get one free discounts complete pairs: pick 4, pay for 2. If the customer's basket doesn't complete a pair (or doesn't meet a minimum-tickets rule), the message says "Add another ticket to use this code."
• If the code stops matching the order (say the customer removes tickets), the applied chip greys out and explains that no discount has been added — the customer can still pay full price.

Free orders skip the card step

When a code covers the whole order — a free-ticket promotion, a 100% discount, or a discount that brings the order under 30p (small leftovers round down to free, because cards can't collect pennies) — the customer never sees a card form. The button becomes Confirm Free Tickets and the tickets are issued straight away, with QR codes and the ticket email exactly as normal.

Uses, holds and refunds

• A limited-use code's use is reserved when checkout starts and released automatically if the customer abandons the checkout — so a code can never be over-used in a rush.
• **The use only goes back when you cancel** — cancelling a ticket from the dashboard, or cancelling the whole event, returns the code use so someone else can use it. A customer cancelling their own ticket (change of mind) does not get the use returned.
• Buy-one-get-one orders cancel and refund as a whole order, like every ticket order.

What the customer's receipt shows

The ticket confirmation email itemises the order — tickets, any extras, the promo code line with the amount off, the booking fee and the total paid. BOGO orders get a note (for example "Buy one get one free — you paid for 2 of 4 tickets."), and fully-covered orders say the order was covered in full with nothing to pay.

Every application, use, return and void is listed on the Promotions page's History tab, and the Promotions tab in Analytics totals up redemptions and the discount you've given away.

Related: What can Promotions do? · How do I publish an event and sell tickets? · How do I cancel an event or refund a ticket?