Spring Airlines

✅ Verified Review | Worst airline I have ever taken! When going to the gate entrance they told me that my luggage size was too large! I have a standard Samsonite hand carry luggage incl full loaded weight 6kg. Spring Airlines luggage can only be 30cm high and width. Had to pay to check in my hand carry luggage. The gates in Shanghai are separate from all other gates, no eateries or anything. You have no leg space. If you are on a low budget, have no luggage except a handbag and feel fine with low class service and are flexible enough to put your legs in your neck you can consider this airline.

✅ Verified Review | Shenzhen to Hangzhou. Best value for money. As the first low-cost airline company, Spring offers you the best prices (usually) for domestic flights. I booked this one-way flight in early February for 350RMB, cheaper than both trains and bullet trains for the same place of departure and destination (from Shenzhen to Hangzhou). Perhaps because it's an early flight taking off at 6:20 am, the cabin was really quiet the whole trip. And there wasn't any promotion of products by the cabin staff as many complained about, nor did the stewardess teach us to do some stretches. But the luggage limits are a little tight, only a bag of 7 kilograms on board and without any free check-in luggage. So you'd better book your check-in luggage online and pay for it, otherwise it will cost you more in the airport. You don't have much legroom since Spring aircrafts often have 180 seats (other airline companies always have 150 seats for the same type). And for the economy class, there weren't any free meals or drinks which you have to buy on board. All in all, you shouldn't miss Spring Airlines if you do not have lots of baggage and want to save tons of money.

✅ Verified Review | Shanghai to Bangkok. This was a truly awful experience. The behaviour of the other passengers and lack of authority/support from the flight crew was astonishing. The family in the seat behind me had two children who kicked the back of my seat the entire flight, the duty free sales pitch over the tannoy went on for over twenty minutes, three hours into the flight someone smoked a cigarette in the toilet, the fasten seat belt signs were totally ignored and during the descent (literally 200m above the runway) passengers got up to retrieve their bags leaving the overhead locker doors open during landing. The antisocial behaviour was truly unbelievable and the cabin crews letting any of it happen was equally unbelievable. I will not use an airline that takes rules and safety so lightly again. It was like an exercise in how not to conduct an international flight. Not to mention the hour long queue and ensuing rugby scrum to check in. Utter chaos.

✅ Verified Review | Shanghai to Hong Kong. Spring Airlines is a budget LCC and there is no question about that. But I think for an LCC, it is about as good as it gets. There was little to no line at the check in counters, and boarding was quick and efficient. I did not find the staff to be rude. Yes they are strict with the baggage but even regular airlines can be like that these days. The seats are definitely cramped, even if you have a spring plus, but you are saving a ton of money by flying this airline. A few points I'd make: -If possible definitely buy a spring plus ticket. It is not that much more, but you get extra legroom, a special check in line (at Shanghai), a full meal, drinks, priority boarding etc. -They don't allow use of mobile phones in flight. Even in airplane mode. Bring your ipad or computer because they will allow these. Very strange policy. -At some point in the flight one of the CAs will give a 20 minute speech to everyone about all the in flight shopping products they have. You really need some earplugs for this part. Because this is an LCC, the main drawback is that there is no guarantee you will get to your destination. If something goes wrong with the plane, weather, or airport, you could be delayed 12 hours or just have your flight cancelled with no extra help. That's the risk you take with this type of airline.

✅ Verified Review | Bangkok to Shanghai. The worst airline ever. Yes it is a budget airline but for an international flight you can only get 15kg, that is including the 5kg Hand luggage. So in other words your allowance is 5kg handluggage and 10 kg checked in luggage. The staff are most unfriendly. You don't even get water for the 4,5 hour flight but paid almost 200 Euros for one way, so it's not that cheap. If you want to book an international flight try AirAsia, Thai Smile, Nok Airways or other alternatives. I will never book with Spring Airlines again for an international flight.

From Hong Kong to Shanghai with Spring Air. Flight delayed a first time and we waited 1 hour on the tarmac before take off. From Shanghai back to Hong Kong, boarding was delayed for more than 1 hour without any explanation. Then we waited on the tarmac for 1 hour before they told us that we weren't going to take off for another hour. Didn't they know that before we boarded? Or is that a way to sell their disgusting food on board? All this happened after they canceled the flight I was supposed to take and left me with no choice but this flight. Total waste of time, you should absolutely avoid this company, it is not even worth the money. Or take it only if you have absolutely nothing else planned during the day.

✅ Verified Review | Flew from Shanghai to Sanya. First off, delayed, and not delayed by waiting in the airport either. Delayed on the tarmac for over an hour. Flight landed well and took off safely which was a plus. However, few food and beverage choices and reading and entertainment were absolutely horrible for a flight of only 2 and a half hours, seemed like I was on board for 7 hours. The staff do not allow you to use your phone at all, not even at cruising altitude which does not allow me to read from my phone. Conclusion - only fly this airline if it's a short trip or outrageously cheap.

✅ Verified Review | This a budget airline. For those who have high expectations and then are disappointed, well you should expect that they will nickel and dime you for extra luggage, as all the discount airlines do. Thanks to all the reviews on this site, I was prepared for Spring Airlines. I specifically bought the "Business Class" ticket, also known as SpringPlus, which allows a generous 25kg. Reading the fine print, that 25kg includes 7kg in the carry-on, that you should not exceed (in practice they did not weigh my carry on, as it was just a backpack). Thus after booking my ticket and buying a lot of things in Shanghai I went online (all in English) and added an extra 10kg a few days before my flight so that my 25kg suitcase would have no problems with my new 35kg total limit. I also knew that it was the May holiday, and specifically booked a daytime flight a day before everyone would be returning. This was to ensure: 1) less delays, (and I experienced none), and 2) services would be available if something went wrong (easier when ground staff are on their daytime shift, easier to get a taxi when landing, etc). The first two rows are considered "business". In reality the seats don't recline, and while the first row has good legroom, the second row is pretty much economy, and after 2 hours I felt more tired than I did on 11 hours of Cathay Pacific Economy. Leg room practically zero - second class high speed trains in China have more legroom. If you are a bigger guy you really need the first row. The service is good on SpringPlus though - special red carpet check-in - they wrap your luggage (really unnecessary), provide a special shuttle bus to plane, priority boarding, etc. But the seat is just hard. Throughout the flight they manage to do a large amount of sales, the lady with the microphone started advertising electric razors, some model airplanes and other things (all in Chinese of course). I suppose they make some good money off these aggressive sales. Would I fly them again? Sure if I had to. My other option if not flying would be a 7+ hour trip (a 5 hour train to Beijing, and then a taxi to another train station and then another 1.5 hours by high speed train). Or I could fly 2 hours (+2 hours arriving early) direct with Spring. So I chose that. Other notes: 1) Unless you only have a backpack, I recommend SpringPlus if you have a lot of, or just ANY luggage, and recommend buying more than required (add on option on website, during purchase and anytime after as well) - better to have 10kg extra and lose it than to get charged a ridiculous price at the airport. 2) I'm fluent in Mandarin, so had a much easier time. If you don't speak the language and are traveling domestically in China (e.g. Chinese city to Chinese city, and not to another country) you might have a lot of issues as no staff members speak English and neither do the passengers who could potentially help you. 3) Book a day flight to provide better visibility and hopefully less delays 4) Don't expect to rest/sleep on the flight. It should only be a few hours anyway.

Spring Airlines advertise low cost fares but they get the money back (and more) with the baggage allowance limit of 15kg including both your checked and carry-on bag. It is listed in the fine print somewhere but not advertised. The charge is approximately $10 USD/KG over the limit. Online excess baggage is impossible to do unless you read and speak Mandarin, have Ali-Pay and pay two days in advance. Forget calling because they refused to take my credit card (Visa). I made a spelling mistake in my last name on the online ticket from Bangkok to Shanghai Pudong (admittedly my mistake) but Spring Airlines advertises that you can change the mistake for a small fee. This was a nice surprise, the problem - you have to do it at the Spring Airlines reservation counter and there is no reservation counter in Bangkok where I was. So I had to purchase another ticket. But in the end, it was way cheaper for me to purchase a second ticket on a different airline than it was to pay for extra baggage on Spring Airlines. Even though the second ticket was twice the price I paid for the Spring Airlines ticket, it was still worked out to be cheaper. My second ticket had a baggage allowance of 2 bags (23kg each) + 10kg carry-on like most normal carriers. With Spring Airlines I would have cost me $410USD for the bags alone. So I kissed my girlfriend goodbye and flew alone with all of our bags and she flew Spring Airlines with little more than her carry-on luggage. The staff was also not friendly at all at the check-in counter but understandably so. They were subject to arguing with most of the passengers when they pointed out the reality of the ticket and baggage limitations. It was sad to see so many people with so much stress after such a nice relaxing vacation. The silver lining, I never flew on a Spring Airlines plane and they didn't take any more of my money. I also learned two valuable lessons - always read the fine print carefully and do not make a silly typing error on any tickets you are purchasing. Thank you Spring Airlines for the valuable lessons! I will never fly with Spring Airlines again.

The site of never use Spring Airlineslooked good and the flight time was good for us. This is all the positive things about this airline. We were told that we had minimum weight baggage only after booking (10kg handbag + 15kg laggage), when we tried adding laggage and after waiting a long time on the phone line which already cost me alot (international call) we were told that we can only add luggage if we know how to speak chinesse, and adding it through an automatic machine, and can only use a Chinese credit card. After we added 10 kilos more using a Chinese friend we got to the airport and they told us this flight doean't include handbag and the total is 15 kg + the 10kg that we added, and we needed to pay about 15$ for each exceeding weight. We tried talking to the supervisor and all he kept saying is "it's your mistake". I would never use Spring Airlines and would suggest to everyone not to tempt to the low price and the hours of their flights.