Quick Thoughts:
I was a little hesitant about flying Viva Aerobus as I had read mixed things online about them. It turned out that there was no real reason for concern and our flight was on time and we felt we paid a fair price. The wait at check in was a little longer than expected and the boarding process was confusing but otherwise this was an uneventful flight. If Viva Aerobus was again the best price I’d definitely book with them in the future.
Basic Flight Information
- Who was traveling? – 4 adults, one child (My parents, wife, and my 8 year old daughter)
- Flight Number – VB1023
- Scheduled Departure Time – 2:40PM
- Scheduled Flight Time – 2 Hours 35 Minutes
- Plane Type – A321-200
- Airport Codes – CUN->MEX
- Connections? – No
- Class of Service – Economy Smart
- Seats – 8D (aisle), 8E (middle), 8F (window), 13A (window), 13B (middle)
- Seating Configuration – 3,3
Booking
This flight was part of a trip that I helped coordinate to Mexico in celebration of my parents 50th wedding anniversary. Viva Aerobus is a low cost Mexican carrier and had by far the best prices and times for the date we were going to be flying when we made the booking five months in advance.
While I would have liked to book through the Capital One or Chase Travel portals to earn more miles I couldn’t choose the fare type that I wanted on those sites. As such I booked directly with Viva Aerobus and chose the Economy Smart option at a cost of 1800 Mexican Pesos ($107 USD at the time of booking) per person for the one way flight.
The base fares on Viva Aerobus are similar to Basic Economy fares and only include a personal item. We had checked luggage and wanted to select seats so it made sense to go with the Economy Smart fare. Here is a snapshot of what they include with the Smart fare.
The Viva Aerobus website worked well and I didn’t run into any issues during booking except for a few places that were in Spanish even though I was on the English version of the website.
What was annoying though was that a couple of months after I booked they changed our flight from the MEX airport (close to the city) to NLU airport (much further out from the city center). Luckily their site made it straightforward to select an alternate flight with them and I quickly chose a flight about 2 hours earlier than our previously scheduled one that still worked with our schedule.
One other interesting item of note was that all of my emails from Viva Aerobus arrived in Spanish despite having my profile set to English/USA.
Check In & Security
Online check in opened on June 5th, 10 days in advance of the flight, by far the furthest out check in I’ve experienced. I was able to get boarding passes easily from the site, except for my daughter. Due to her age we were required to get her boarding pass in person. To be honest, not a big deal for us since we were going to be checking bags!
Thanks to our Economy Smart fare we had access to the Viva Express check in lane. When we arrived we found the express line was actually longer than the general lane, however it was moving faster and they opened more counters for it while we were in line. Even then it took almost 40 minutes to get checked in. When did finally get to the front we were helped by a friendly and efficient agent that quickly checked our five bags, printed us boarding passes, put them in the correct passports and pointed us in the right direction to security.
Security was relatively quick and we were allowed to keep everything in our bags and our shoes on despite not having any special privileges. The only issue we encountered was that a couple of full water bottles had to be thrown away, which wasn’t surprising. Overall security was quick, efficient and took less than ten minutes.
Lounge
We were in terminal 2 for our flight and we tried to visit “The Lounge” which is available via Priority Pass. When we arrived at 12:05PM they were already full and did not have a waitlist. The person at the desk wasn’t helpful and when asked when things might change they simply shrugged.
Luckily we noticed next door was the Mera Business Lounge and they were advertising that there was free entry with the Capital One Venture X card (and Amex platinum). This lounge was not full and after a short wait we were able to get everyone in for free thanks to my Venture X card.
The Meta lounge was small but a great experience. Everything was clean and service was excellent and friendly throughout our stay. The great service included small things like noticing I had gotten a rice pudding but didn’t have a spoon. As I was walking back from helping my daughter one of the staff handed me a spoon wrapped in a napkin. I hadn’t asked, they simply anticipated the need and filled it! This was not a one off as service continued to be good despite the lounge being quite full by a little after 1PM.
Seating in the lounge was comfortable and power options were readily available. Fast (200Mbps upload and download) and free Wi-Fi was also provided.
Food was tasty and they changed from breakfast to lunch dishes while we were there so we had lots of choices. Drink selection was also very good. Six wines, multiple beer and soft drinks, coffee, cocoa, and flavored waters.
Really, what more could you want from a 2 hour lounge stay?
Gate Area & Boarding
After leaving the lounge we made our way to gate A3. This is one of the gates located in a large circular area at the Cancun airport. In the middle sat lots of shopping and restaurants. The gate area was very full when we arrived, clearly not accommodating well the size of plane we were boarding. Boarding was disorganized with no signage and it was very difficult to hear any of the announcements that were being made (without an announcement system). On top of that all boarding announcements were only in Spanish making it even more difficult for us to figure out what was going on.
We succeeded in getting into a boarding line for the right plane but I think we ended up boarding earlier than we were supposed to. Maybe it was because we had a child with us but ultimately the friendly gate agent let us on when we reached the front of the boarding line despite having turned away others who were in later boarding groups. (Boarding group was clearly printed on your boarding pass but it was nearly impossible to tell which group they were boarding at any given time.).
Onboard
The crew were friendly and key announcements were made in both Spanish and English once we were onboard. Most of the announcements were standard fare but it was interesting that they highlighted that all bathrooms included baby changing stations. I thought that was a nice addition and particularly useful because there were lots of kids on our flight.
Cleanliness
Cleanliness was just ok. The floor definitely needed a good vacuuming and it was clear that tray tables weren’t cleaned between flights. That said everything else seemed to be reasonably clean.
The front bathroom was clean when I used it and I was pleasantly surprised by the size. In fact the bathroom was a decent amount bigger than on a recent AA flight on a 737 in business class. Toiletries were basic but adequate.
Seats
The seats were on the hard side and did not recline. There was just enough space for my knees to comfortably fit (I’m 5’11”). This was in part because the hard shell of the seat was curved in the middle allowing more space for each knee on each side of the seat. Unfortunately there was definitely not enough space to stretch out my legs. Overall it was fine for a 2.5 hour flight but I’m sure I’d get tired of it if flying such a seat for 4+ hours.
Interestingly, I was able to use my laptop (a 13″ MacBook Air). There was just barely enough room but the fact that the seats didn’t recline meant that I wasn’t worried about the screen being crushed while using it.
Power, Entertainment, and Wi-Fi
This being a low cost carrier we were not surprised that there was no power or seat back screens provided. Entertainment was available on your device via their Viva Play offering but at a cost and we did not purchase it.
Food & Drinks
Similarly no food or drinks were included on the flight. That said, a decent selection of drinks and snacks were available for purchase and prices were quite reasonable.
Service
Other than the problems with gate announcements being hard to hear we found all of the Viva Aerobus staff friendly and helpful.
Arrival
Mexico City (MEX) is a very large and busy airport – but it didn’t feel that way on arrival. The walk to baggage claim was exceptionally short at just a few minutes but we did have to wait about 20 minutes for arrival of our luggage. Even with the wait for our luggage and a stop at the information desk in the airport we were driving away in our uber just an hour after landing. Not bad for our first time at this airport!
Overall Impressions
Overall we were happy with the flight. It was on time and there were no significant issues that we experienced. The price was good and Viva Aerobus delivered what we expected. The only caveat I’d put forward is to make sure you go in with appropriate expectations. They are a low cost carrier and even with the Economy Smart fare you can expect a no frills experience and to pay for anything extra that you may need along the way. So long as you keep that in mind you are likely to have a good experience.
Flight Timing
Scheduled Times
- Scheduled Departure Time – 2:40PM
- Scheduled Arrival Time – 4:15PM (5:15PM Cancun Time)
Actual Times
- Transfer Departed Hotel – 10:02am (Grand Palladium White Sands)
- Airport Arrival Time – 11:13am
- Check In Complete – 11:50am
- Through Security – 11:58am
- Arrived to Gate or Lounge – 12:08pm
- Boarding Begins – 2:21pm
- On plane: 2:28pm
- Pushed Back From Gate – 2:58pm
- Plane Takeoff – 3:08pm
- Plane Landing – 4:06pm (5:06pm cancun time)
- Arrival At Destination Gate – 4:16pm
- Deplaned – 4:23pm
- Luggage Collected – 4:56pm
- Uber pickup – 5:12pm
