On Wednesday, I got word that a friend of mine had just forked over $450 in order to book a visa reset flight to ICN and back, and advised him that Spring Airlines could allow him to perform the same mission (exit/entry) for less than $200.

To make a long story short, he went ahead and canceled his OZ flight before I had a chance to check alternate options, and ended up booking a quick turn on Spring to HKG for $330, all in. (He would have been able to make it happen for less than $200 if he had flown to Macau and back from Zhuhai or stayed overnight in HK, but simplicity was more important than price for him.)

His experiences on Spring were pretty much the same as mine: spartan, clean, punctual (I gather this is not a given), and cramped. He also liked the pre-landing stretching exercises and commented that, "this company actually cares about its customers". After missing return flight, Spring put him on the 7p flight without charging him any fees. He spent his time at HKG eating doughnuts (KK) and fried chicken (Popeye's), and watching a movie in the Imax theater (T2). (It's probably best that he didn't know about the Cabin.)