A method for estimating the spectral gap along with higher eigenvalues of nonequilateral quantum graphs has been introduced by Amini and Cohen-Steiner recently: it is based on a new transference principle between discrete and continuous models of a graph. We elaborate on it by developing a more general transference principle and by proposing alternative ways of applying it. To illustrate our findings, we present several spectral estimates on planar metric graphs that are oftentimes sharper than those obtained by isoperimetric inequalities and further previously known methods.