48 hours, and the word that matters: recommendation
Softer than most airlines phrase it, which is a reason to be more careful, not less.
Plenty of airlines put a hard deadline on assistance requests: miss the window and, on paper, they can decline. Viva phrases it differently. Its guidance is to request assistance at least 48 hours before the flight, worded as a recommendation rather than a strict cutoff. That is genuinely friendlier, but it can lull you into leaving things late, and a recommendation is not a promise that a last-minute request will be met.
So we treat the softness as a reason to move early, not a licence to delay. The best time to log any assistance request is the day you book, when it costs nothing and there is no clock at all. Whatever you arrange, get it written into the reservation, because a friendly recommendation and a note in the system are two very different things when you reach a busy counter.
Mobility devices and the battery rules
Declared at booking, with specific handling for anything powered.
Tell Viva about a mobility device when you book, not when you arrive. A manual wheelchair is the straightforward case. The care goes into powered chairs, because the battery is what airlines regulate.
If the battery cannot be taken out, it stays on the device, secured in place with its terminals insulated so it cannot short. The chair then travels as it is, which is why declaring the exact model early matters.
If the battery detaches, it comes off the chair and travels in the cabin rather than the hold. Knowing which type yours is before travel prevents a scramble at check-in over where the battery is supposed to go.
Even a chair whose battery is handled correctly still has to physically fit the aircraft. That is the cargo-door problem, and it is the one detail Viva gives you real numbers for, in the next section.
The cargo door: the measurement that decides whether your chair flies
The section you cannot copy from anyone, because almost no airline publishes this.
Here is a number that matters enormously and that airlines almost never give travelers: how big the cargo door actually is. A large power wheelchair does not care about a friendly policy if it will not pass through the opening into the hold. Viva publishes the dimensions across its fleet, and the spread is wide: the largest cargo door measures 1.82 by 1.24 metres, and the smallest is just 0.95 by 0.89 metres. That is close to a metre of difference in width between the biggest and smallest aircraft.
For most travelers this never comes up. For someone flying with an oversized or heavy power chair, it is the whole ballgame. A chair that loads easily on an aircraft with the big door can be turned away from a flight assigned a smaller one, and aircraft can change. So the useful move is to measure your chair, then match it against the door on the specific aircraft your route flies, before you book rather than at the ramp. This is precisely the kind of check a booking engine will never do and we will: we look at your chair's real dimensions against the fleet on your itinerary, and flag it if the margins are tight.
Oxygen: FAA-approved concentrators only
A short, clear rule, with the emphasis on approval.
Viva allows portable oxygen concentrators on board provided the device is FAA-approved. The word to hold onto is approved: not every concentrator on the market qualifies, so the safe step is to confirm your specific model is on the approved list before you buy the ticket, and to have that noted on the reservation. If your oxygen need is anything other than a straightforward approved concentrator, treat it as a call to make before booking, describe the device and the route, and get the airline's answer in writing first.
Pregnancy: no certificate, but a recommended cutoff
Viva folds pregnancy into its assistance rules rather than giving it a page of its own.
Viva does not require a medical certificate to fly while pregnant when the pregnancy is uncomplicated. What it publishes are recommended limits: it advises against flying past 36 weeks for a single pregnancy, and past 32 weeks when you are expecting multiples. Read those as guidance from the airline rather than a certificate-gated wall, but do not read them as trivial.
The important caveat is the word uncomplicated. Any complication changes the picture, and the airline's recommendation is not medical advice about your particular pregnancy. So if your trip lands anywhere near those weeks, or if there is anything unusual about the pregnancy, confirm with your own doctor and with the airline before you book, because policies and their edge cases change, and the last place to discover a problem is a boarding gate. We are glad to put your exact situation to the airline before you commit to a fare.
Animals: emotional support still real here, service dogs uncapped
The policy the big US carriers dropped, alive on Viva with paperwork.
American, Delta and United accept no emotional support animals at all. Viva still does. An emotional support dog or cat flies free on Viva with a medical prescription or signed letter plus vaccination and health certificates, and it is not lumped in as a paid pet. That already sets Viva apart from the US majors, and it differs from Volaris too, which keeps emotional support animals only on routes that never touch the United States. The documentation is the price of admission, so gather the prescription and the vaccination and health certificates before you travel rather than hoping to explain at the counter.
Service animals are a separate category and fly free as well. One thing to be firm about: Viva does not publish a weight cap for service dogs, so if anyone quotes you a kilo figure as the airline's service-dog rule, that number did not come from Viva, and you should ask exactly where it did. Documentation expectations can still vary by route and destination country, which is the sort of detail we confirm on the call before you book.
Animal rules and documentation vary by destination country and change; we confirm your exact route's requirements on the call, and you can review them yourself at vivaaerobus.com at no cost.
Before you fly, the checklist
Work the hard-to-reverse requests first.
- Large or powered wheelchair? Measure it and match it against the aircraft cargo door on your route before booking
- Know your battery type? Non-removable stays secured and insulated on the chair; removable travels in the cabin
- Oxygen concentrator FAA-approved? Confirm the exact model and note it on the reservation
- Pregnant near 36 weeks, or 32 with multiples? Check with your doctor and the airline before booking
- Emotional support or service animal? Gather the prescription plus vaccination and health certificates in advance
- Everything logged at booking? 48 hours is only a recommendation, so earlier is always safer
For a big wheelchair, the door is the whole question. Battery rules, notice periods and paperwork all matter, but none of them get a chair onto a plane it physically cannot fit inside. Viva is unusually open about its cargo-door sizes, so use them: measure the chair, tell us the route, and we will match it to the aircraft before you pay, rather than finding out at the ramp that the chair and the door disagree.
Frequently asked
How much notice does Viva Aerobus need for special assistance?+
Can I fly Viva Aerobus with my own wheelchair?+
Can I fly pregnant on Viva Aerobus?+
Does Viva Aerobus accept emotional support animals?+
Contact options
Reach Viva Aerobus directly, or let us add the request and confirm it's set.
Contact Viva Aerobus directly
The airline's own channels, free.
These are Viva's own channels; confirm current assistance rules at vivaaerobus.com, where every request can be arranged at no cost. Note that delayed or damaged baggage is handled by email and the online portal, not by phone.
More Viva Aerobus help
Related guides.