Hello. This morning I flew down to HK on Spring Airlines (or “spring and fall* airlines” if you translate the Chinese directly); airline code is 9C. I never, in my wildest dreams, would have selected that flight on my own, but I told our office person “any airline is fine”, and well, I guess whenever one says this on a route that Spring flies, there’s a good chance they’ll end up on Spring.

Moving on, I had heard some real horror stories about Spring in the past (e.g. friend of a friend’s flight to HK made an unscheduled stop in XMN a few years ago, passengers held hostage in airport, riot broke out), and they also happen to be the airline that lobbied for “standing room only” planes.

After my ticket was booked (and my fate sealed), I checked out their website to see what was in store for me. What impressed me about their website was its brutal honesty. To paraphrase, the short version of their message is:
-we are a low fare airline
-if you are a travel agent, and you sell one of our tickets, it’s your responsibility to convey the message to your client that if something goes wrong, we’re not going to do squat
-our seats don’t recline, we don’t serve free food, don’t even think about bringing our own food
By this point, my expectations were rather low, but part of me was looking forward to experiencing this beast first hand.
I showed at PVG at 750a (for a 910a) departure. Spring uses the M aisle in T1 (furthest north, I think; definitely furthest from where I got dropped off). They had 3 morning flights – in addition to HK, they were going to two different secondary airports in Japan – each of which had its own dedicated check-in person. The problem was that, in spite of the y1 fares, nobody was going to Japan  the HK like was a zoo. I stepped to the front for a minute to inquire if there were any self service kiosks or the like, and the agent told me to come back at t-46, and I’d have her all to myself. I followed her advice, which turned out to be spot on. She even held an aisle seat towards the front back for me… a pretty nice gesture, since I now know that they sell those seats for a y50 premium at check-in.
As I expected, our flight was assigned a bus gate. Since I didn’t check in until t-46, I only had about 30 minutes to kill down there. But, I still wanted to delay getting on the plane until the last possible minute because I know that gate area seats are more comfortable that 29” pitch airplane seats. The Spring people were completely sympathetic to my plight. They told me straight up that the last bus leaves at T-5, it’s one of those VIP van types, and that if I stayed within earshot, they’d be happy to summon me.
Next, our minivan rolled up to the air stairs, rock star style, and I made my way to 3D. Yup, 29” pitch is really tight. The silver lining is that since Spring only serves food to those that are willing to (over)pay for it, there is very little action in the aisle; this allowed me to put my legs there (not in the middle of it, but in an area that would normally impede the progress of food carts).
The airplane was relatively new (they claim the newest fleet in China), and I felt that the cabin crew was quite professional; they didn’t do much, but at least they were physically present and cheerful.
Other tidbits:
-the in-flight mag was similar to Delta’s SkyMall, except for the fact that everything was obscenely overpriced,… and many of the items were things that anybody with half a brain could pick up at a fake market
-one of the FA’s lead the plane in an inflight stretching class as we neared HK (these guys clearly get the fact that 29” pitch is painful)
-the inflight mag had a full page ad featuring travel insurance that we could purchase even once airborne (e.g. if I die, I can claim y800,000, woo hoo!)
-while I dare say that very few of the passengers were traveling on company dime (I wouldn’t work for such a company, and neither would they), most of them seemed like reasonable people (i.e. put that “gate lice” generalization aside)
In closing, not eating anything between 6a and 1p, and spending 2.5 of those hours on board a Spring Airlines A320 was not very pleasant. That having been said, those guys managed to get me from Shanghai to HK for $62 with minimal advance purchase. They’re even more disruptive in the Japan market (e.g. $80 v. $1000 on MU’s strongholds). As such, I have to say that I support their cause. They never tricked me into thinking they were KA; they merely said they are cheap and their planes are new. They lived up to both of these promises, so kudos to them.