American Airlines Cadet Academy loan question.

Posted by Marbogast0615@reddit | flying | View on Reddit | 14 comments

I’m a professional pilot so I know all about what it takes to do the training stuff. My stepson has been talking about the AA Cadet Academy and I think he’s got the wrong information in his head about this program.

He thinks he can do the 12 month accelerated program while also going to college full time going for a non aviation degree. I personally disagree with that. I don’t think there is enough time in the day to be successful at both at the same time. He is having a hard time understanding that.
He says “AA will pay for the program as long as you don’t fail too many check rides and work for them until it’s paid off” I don’t see where that is the case. I see a giant loan that is deferred until you finish the program. Then typical repayment starts. So who is right?

I am not familiar with this particular program, but his two ideas don’t make sense to me. So I’m here just to make sure I’m not the one missing something.

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Competitive_Mix9082@reddit

Currently in the program. AA does not pay for it, and theres no chance he can do both college and the program. They schedule us 5-6 times a week, and we dont know what time they schedule us until the day before. IMO the program is okay but it’s very easy to get the boot and burned out. Also expensive, currently in multi and paying about 850 for 2 hours of flight time.

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AdventurousSepti@reddit

Probably never convince him with words or even written figures. I'd suggest Bank of Dad give him a line of credit for PPL. Make a written contract. That will show him how much work it is, plus college work. If he flies 2-3X a week cost can be as low as $15,000. if 2X a month probably $25,000 or much more. Statistically, 70% of those who start PPL do not get their license. If he drops out, he owes you with a deferment until college graduation. Charge 10% interest. After PPL instrument may cost another $15,000. And commercial can be cheap as $5,000 but need that 250 hours. So total can be $35,000 plus some hours, which is a LOT less than $100,000. Oh, and add instructor rating cost. The idea is not to hope he fails, but show how difficult. He will give up many dates, social outings, lots of sacrifice, especially for college kids with so many pulling at his time. If he gets PPL give him a bonus, like forgive $5,000 or ??? If he isn't willing to sacrifice and give up typical college social activities, it isn't like the end of a pilot career, just wait until get 4 year degree. If you really want to start cheap, buy him a $300 online ground school, like at Sporty's, and if he passes FAA exam then give him line of credit. Studying for written plus college work can be a full load plus. Get him memberships in AOPA and EAA. Can he go to AirVenture next July? Every major aviation college is there plus many regionals and majors and NASA. Sure it's called Experimental ... as in homebuilts, but of the 10,000 aircraft that fly into OSH that week only about 1,200 are homebuilts. The rest are factory, warbirds, vintage, Boeing, Airbus, and all the military branches. Over 1,500 lectures, forums, and hands-on workshops. Don't just plan on a day or two, must stay for the week. Tent camping is best. Either beside plane flown in, or with the 40,000 others in Camp Scholler. Buy a copy of Cleared for Take-off by Ishitha from Amz. I gave her first small plane ride, a Young Eagle flight, at 14. She went on to solo glider at 14, get glider license at 16, PPL at 17, and then wrote the book. It is about scholarships, grants, and financial aid for youth to get PPL. She is going to my alma mater, Stanford, and will continue training with Stanford Flying Club. Many colleges near airports have a flying club. Many more routes to professional pilot than AA program. less $$, lower interest, and with much less risk, just in case. I'm sure you went a different route.

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Marbogast0615@reddit (OP)

Oh yeah I’m well aware there are better and cheaper ways to get it done.

He decided to move to his dad’s for high school. Which is 800 miles from us. He is currently first semester of sophomore year of college.

We went to OSH last year for the whole week. Talked to all the schools and every branch of the military. Once he went back home he was talked out of flying (long story).

He’s talking about flying again and brought up this program. It seemed like he had some bad info so I came here to verify.

The real killer for me at least…. I kept my CFI CFII MEI current and own a Lake Buccaneer….. so I literally could teach him.

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Guysmiley777@reddit

No he cannot do both at the same time. The accelerated courses assume you have 24/7 availability and if you don't "maintain satisfactory progress" you get the boot.
Cadet academies have been known to change the rules mid-stream when the supply of candidates is too high to thin out the herd. If they decide a cadet to be able to hop on one foot for a mile wile patting their head and rubbing their belly in under 8 minutes and he fails he'll be out on his ass and the loan payment schedule starts per the agreement.

The airlines started putting credence towards these cadet programs when they got caught flat footed by the hiring spike post-COVID. With the vast oversupply of 1500+ CFIs and CPLs currently there is no incentive for them to not jack candidates around as they see fit.

Even on the AA Cadet Academy site it says:

Cadet Academy is not an offer of employment of any kind from American Airlines or any of its subsidiaries. Additionally, the Cadet Academy program cannot guarantee employment as a flight instructor. American Airlines will give you the necessary resources to be successful for flying with Envoy, Piedmont, or PSA.

This letter is not an offer of employment, and your acceptance of this Conditional Offer of Program Admission does not guarantee an opportunity of employment with American, now or at any time in the future.

As to the repayment details, the site says:

American Airlines Federal Credit Union requires no payments for up to 45 months while enrolled and making satisfactory progress as reported by the flight school and American Airlines. No payments or interest charged during the Instruction phase (up to 18 months). After completion of your Instruction phase, there is a 27 month grace period where interest will begin to accrue, followed by the start of normal repayment. All accrued interest will be added to your principal balance at the start of repayment.

Payments may be made during the enrolled period to reduce the overall cost of your loan and will apply to interest first, then principal. There are no fees or penalties for early payments. If satisfactory academic progress is not maintained or you are no longer enrolled in the program, the loan will enter a one-time six month grace period not to exceed 27 months from the completion of your Instruction phase.

If at any point during the Instruction Period or Hour Building Period you cease being enrolled in the program or are no longer making satisfactory academic progress, as reported by the flight school or American Airlines, your loan will enter repayment after a one-time three month grace period.

So there are no guarantees, no promises, no automatic job waiting for someone who completes the program.

TL;DR: TANSTAAFL. There ain't no such thing as a free lunch. It may not necessarially be a bad deal but it's not some magical "one neat trick to become an airline pilot" either.

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Marbogast0615@reddit (OP)

Pretty much exactly what I was thinking. The only advantage I see is it seems like they offer an interview at one of the AA wholly owned regionals. But that doesn’t seem worth it.

Especially in his case. I have a unicorn part 91 jet gig. We have one guy on pace to retire at a timeline that’ll line up nicely with the stepson training and time building timeline. So 95% chance he has a job waiting on him.

Anyways thanks for the rundown. The things he was saying about this program just did not make sense to me. But I wanted to make sure I wasn’t just being the mean ole dream crushing step dad.

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Pokeranger1215@reddit

You sound like a good stepdad, he is very very lucky to have you 😊

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Marbogast0615@reddit (OP)

Thanks a bunch.

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ltcterry@reddit

Sounds like a poor plan. Likely based on too many optimistic bits of inaccurate information.

Good luck correcting that w/o looking like a mean step parent!

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RaiseTheDed@reddit

Here's the post u/TXAggieMike was referencing.

Unsecured Flight training Loans

Find my other posts:

ATP Flight School

College Aviation Programs

Using Unsecured Financing (Debt) to Fund Flight Training (Part 1)

Thanks to u/TXAggieMike for editing my original comment!

You can find an up to date version of my post here on my profile.

USING UNSECURED LOANS FOR FLIGHT TRAINING — Please Don’t.

So it has always been your dream to be an airline pilot? AWESOME!! And now you’re ready to take on the training to achieve that dream? WONDERFUL!!

But you’ve just realized that achieving that dream and doing the required trining comes with a big price tag. So now you’re considering using a loan (aka debt) to fund that training.

Sure…. but you need make certain you’re thinking beyond the dream and considering some reality.

Many folks in this subreddit will say the same thing: avoid flight training debt at all costs. Let's examine why.

Starting with the numbers:

Many flight schools offering a “Zero to Hero” program advertise a cost for the program of $100,000 to $120,000. This takes you from Private pilot to flight instructor (typically 250-300 hours of flight experience). (don’t forget you need 1,500 to be eligible for Airline Transport Pilot). It may also include certification for Commercial Pilot-Multiengine Land. Maybe even Multi-Engine Instructor.

The interest rates for an unsecured loan (which this is) is about 13-18%.
Term length on these loans are often 7 to 10 to 15 years.

For our illustration and our discussion, let’s plug into a debt calculator $120,000.00, 15% interest, and a 10 year term length. The results are:

Monthly Payment = $1,936.02
Total Amount of Interest Paid = $112,322.34
Total Amount of your flight training using debt = $232,322.34

Using a loan to pay for your dream and your training just to get started in aviation will cost you A QUARTER MILLION DOLLARS!. That is million with a very big M.

Some additional things to know….

These loans are not federally subsidized
You will need to begin making payments on the loan immediately
You set off paying on the loan like student debt. This isn’t student debt.

So beyond the dreamy idea of “I want to be a pilot and fly for a living....”,

Have you really considered the true costs of initial training?
Do you have a plan to repay the loan?
Do you currently have the income to cover the additional monthly $1,950.00 pressure to your personal budget?

Now let’s say you get the loan, trained hard, obtain your certification to be a flight instructor, and got really lucky to find a job at a flight school. (FYI: don’t fall for the sales pitch that the flight school you trained at will hire you as an instructor. Unless you posses a signed contract saying they will do that, it’s likely they won’t. Most likely you finish their program and need to find employment.)

In the 2025 world, finding employment as a very low time instructor is very difficult.

Anyway, you’re employed. And you have a $2,000 a month loan payment to make. And you need to pay rent. And you need to buy gas for the car. Oh, and you want to eat too, yes?

Again, let’s work the details and the numbers:

Most CFI’s make at best $35,000 to $40,000 a year.... before taxes. Many make less.
Most schools employ you as a 1099 contractor. That means you are the one responsible for paying income tax to the IRS, not the school
Estimated self employed income tax on $40,000 is $12,000. Leaving you $28,000
Divide that by 12 months, you have $2,334 to cover your monthly nut
Loan payment made, you have $334 remaining to cover your rent, your transportation, and feeding yourself.

Oh, and that’s just the average. Did you consider the months, such as winter, where you are not flying hardly at all? No flying means no income. And you still must make the $2000 payment.

And we’re not touching on what it costs to live in different regions like expensive California or the Atlantic Seaboard.

Looking at this closer, after taking on that training debt—can you even afford to exist? Looks like you need to find a second, maybe a third job... just to exist.

What are you going to do if you lose your flying job and maybe your other income? Even with no income, you still gotta repay that $2000 per month.

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RaiseTheDed@reddit

Using Unsecured Financing (Debt) to Fund Flight Training (Part 2)

Let’s wrap up with some additional reading and examples:

This post from covers an example where $30,000 was borrowed for instrument flight training. The borrower wound up repaying $116,000 just for his instrument certificate.
This post discusses the results of borrowing $70,000 and was surprised by an additional $15,000 fee.
This post shows someone borrowing $123,000 for a flight training program. And the terms of the loan mean their training would cost them more than double that amount.
Think Sallie Mae is the answer? Check out this post and what $125,000 of training debt was going to cost the student.

Your dream to become an airline pilot is admirable and a good one. But we want to make sure you are not stuck in the dream world and are being provided with some down to earth information on the realities of using debt to fund flight training. And as a result, make some really bad financial decisions.

Yes, using debt to fund a dream can work for some. But for many, and possibly you, it can take a wonderful dream and create a very cruel financial nightmare with a massive payment you are not able to make. Please consider how you fund your flight training wisely.

Thank you for reading this far…. Here are some other topics that I wrote that may interest you:

ATP Flight School

College Aviaiton Programs

Thanks again to u/TXAggieMike for editing my original post. I'm finally updating the main post I made for others to reference any updates to.

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Marbogast0615@reddit (OP)

Very awesome write up. That explains it much better than I could have.

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TxAggieMike@reddit

I would verify the statement that American Airlines will pay for all the training. That doesn’t sound correct.

I too disagree that he can go to school full time and do flight training full time. That is quite a load of learning and something is going to suffer.

He also needs to be educated on the burden of loans. Likely to this point, he hasn’t encountered the expense of big debt and has no idea how bad it can become.

And if he hasn’t made any purchases above a few hundred dollars and all those wee out of pocket, he is going to be very surprised when he discovers he cannot afford rent/food because the training lender needs to be paid….now!

Look for posts from u/RaiseTheDed about flight training debt and share with him

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Marbogast0615@reddit (OP)

I’m trying to explain all of that to him. But like most 19 year olds loans equal free money.

The college he goes to has a new aviation degree. While still expensive I’m thinking it’s currently his best option.

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rFlyingTower@reddit

This is a copy of the original post body for posterity:

He thinks he can do the 12 month accelerated program while also going to college full time going for a non aviation degree. I personally disagree with that. I don’t think there is enough time in the day to be successful at both at the same time. He is having a hard time understanding that.
He says “AA will pay for the program as long as you don’t fail too many check rides and work for them until it’s paid off” I don’t see where that is the case. I see a giant loan that is deferred until you finish the program. Then typical repayment starts. So who is right?

I am not familiar with this particular program, but his two ideas don’t make sense to me. So I’m here just to make sure I’m not the one missing something.

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