Flight school not honoring refund terms and changing program conditions for “guaranteed 250-hour” training—need advice
Posted by Tangocharlie9er@reddit | flying | View on Reddit | 28 comments
Hey everyone, looking for some advice on a situation at my flight school that’s affecting multiple students and honestly doesn’t feel right.We have students enrolled in a 250-hour “guaranteed” program where you pay upfront for the full training.
Now here’s what’s going on:One student was terminated from the program, and the school owes him about $28k. The contract clearly states that in case of termination, they can take a 25% fee and refund the remaining balance. But the school is now refusing to give a proper refund. After months of constant follow-ups, they only offered $9k, which is way less than what the contract suggests.
At the same time, another student in the same 250-hour guaranteed program (already paid upfront) is around 220–225 hours, so still within the program. But the school is now asking him to switch to pay-as-you-go, claiming he didn’t complete training “on time.” The issue is, the contract doesn’t mention any time limit at all for completing the 250 hours.
On top of that, the contract has a clause saying the school can “modify rules without notifying the student,” which sounds really questionable to us.
So overall:
- They’re not honoring the refund clause
- They’re adding conditions (like time limits) that aren’t in the contract
- And they claim they can change rules without notice
Has anyone dealt with something like this before? Is this even enforceable, or worth pursuing legally? Any advice from CFIs, students, or anyone familiar with contract situations would really help.
Appreciate it.
So overall:
- They’re not honoring the refund clause
- They’re adding conditions (like time limits) that aren’t in the contract
- And they claim they can change rules without notice
Has anyone dealt with something like this before? Is this even enforceable, or worth pursuing legally? Any advice from CFIs, students, or anyone familiar with contract situations would really help.
Appreciate it.
TL;DR:
My flight school is offering a “guaranteed 250-hour program” paid upfront, but is allegedly not following the contract. One student isn’t receiving the refund promised after termination, and another is being forced to switch to pay-as-you-go despite not completing the hours or having any contract time limit. The school also claims it can change rules without notice. Looking for advice on whether this is legally enforceable or worth pursuing.
fortinbrass1993@reddit
Name the flight school!
I hope you and your buddy get every penny you deserve back!
Strict-Confusion-570@reddit
Just have your friend have a lawyer review it. Hell they can split the fees. We are not going to have the answer for you.
stickJ0ckey@reddit
I am very interested to go to a school that does these things, have been searching for one for so long, can you tell me which city it's in?
BandicootNo4431@reddit
I'll read your giant post if you read the FAQ.
Torvaldicus_Unknown@reddit
NEVER PAY UP FRONT
drowninginidiots@reddit
You’ll need a lawyer. Which they figure you can’t afford. Sounds like a really poorly written contract. Depending on exactly what it says, I’d say you have a good chance of winning a lawsuit if it came to it, but who knows how long that would take and how much it would cost.
bhalter80@reddit
So you paid upfront for a deal that could be modified to provide any or no training on the whim of the author and you're surprised at their behavior. I usually try to avoid blaming the victim, this is an exception.
The law is going to require anyone who's suing be the injured party so you and your friends probably have to bring action individually. Most contracts are written by well intentioned arm chair lawyers, so there's probably an angle here. Getting a lawyer to take it on contingency will eat into anything you recover, from personal experience as a landlord in NH going to small claims court this will not be a quick process and probably won't bring the timely relief you need
Tangocharlie9er@reddit (OP)
The guy whose 28000 hasn’t been refunded has already sent a demand letter to which they didn’t even reply.
Thankyou for your valuable insight.
bhalter80@reddit
Part of running an LLC is that it caps my liability at the value of the business with some exceptions for gross negligence and bad faith.
It's entirely likely that they rent their hangar, their planes are lease backs or have high loan-to-value loans on them and they've been paying themselves what the courts will find were reasonable salaries for their efforts.
It's not illegal to pay operating expenses out of customer deposits, if it were there wouldn't be a ski hill in operation anywhere in the USA since the point of selling passes is to keep the place running when there isn't snow on the ground. That's why they discount early on.
So this lock in a price worked really well when there was a steady stream of new clients and the ponzi scheme fell apart when there weren't because they couldn't use the new money to cover old contracts.
I really don't think the business has the money anymore, the question is if you can go after them personally.
RyzOnReddit@reddit
I’d bet avgas prices are part of it. I rent dry in SLC and I’ve seen 5.95, 8.75, and 6.25 a gallon in the last month. If they priced their program based on pre-Iran gas prices, they’re screwed if any amount of flying is happening.
Personally I’d have just added a fuel surcharge under the change language (if I was an idiot like this school and didn’t bake it in up front) which at least has the virtue of being honest and transparent compared to “I have altered the agreement. Pray I do not alter it further”.
bhalter80@reddit
Parts and the decrease in pilot starts got them teetering on the edge, fuel finished the job
LevelBroad2686@reddit
They wont respond to demand letter
bhalter80@reddit
It's step 1
LevelBroad2686@reddit
Still looking for a lawyer
bhalter80@reddit
Yep after that your lawyer files a lawsuit. Step 0 should be to figure out if they're already judgement proof because there are no assets
Infamous_Share_8017@reddit
Just because the contract says it can be modified at any point does not mean it’s enforceable. They may still have grounds to pursue something but that is dependent on 1) the cost of a lawyer being less than what they may actually win and 2) actually being able to collect from the school
bhalter80@reddit
100% with you that's my comment about start with a demand letter which is a few hundred dollars. You can probably add legal fees since this is going to be well in excess of the small claims limit in almost any state
rFlyingTower@reddit
This is a copy of the original post body for posterity:
Hey everyone, looking for some advice on a situation at my flight school that’s affecting multiple students and honestly doesn’t feel right.We have students enrolled in a 250-hour “guaranteed” program where you pay upfront for the full training.
Now here’s what’s going on:One student was terminated from the program, and the school owes him about $28k. The contract clearly states that in case of termination, they can take a 25% fee and refund the remaining balance. But the school is now refusing to give a proper refund. After months of constant follow-ups, they only offered $9k, which is way less than what the contract suggests.
At the same time, another student in the same 250-hour guaranteed program (already paid upfront) is around 220–225 hours, so still within the program. But the school is now asking him to switch to pay-as-you-go, claiming he didn’t complete training “on time.” The issue is, the contract doesn’t mention any time limit at all for completing the 250 hours.
On top of that, the contract has a clause saying the school can “modify rules without notifying the student,” which sounds really questionable to us.
So overall:
- They’re not honoring the refund clause
- They’re adding conditions (like time limits) that aren’t in the contract
- And they claim they can change rules without notice
Has anyone dealt with something like this before? Is this even enforceable, or worth pursuing legally? Any advice from CFIs, students, or anyone familiar with contract situations would really help.
Appreciate it.
So overall:
- They’re not honoring the refund clause
- They’re adding conditions (like time limits) that aren’t in the contract
- And they claim they can change rules without notice
Has anyone dealt with something like this before? Is this even enforceable, or worth pursuing legally? Any advice from CFIs, students, or anyone familiar with contract situations would really help.
Appreciate it.
TL;DR:
My flight school is offering a “guaranteed 250-hour program” paid upfront, but is allegedly not following the contract. One student isn’t receiving the refund promised after termination, and another is being forced to switch to pay-as-you-go despite not completing the hours or having any contract time limit. The school also claims it can change rules without notice. Looking for advice on whether this is legally enforceable or worth pursuing.
Please downvote this comment until it collapses.
Questions about this comment? Please see this wiki post before contacting the mods.
I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. If you have any questions, please contact the mods of this subreddit.
Money-Evening-2624@reddit
Go on, share the name of the flight school
shadowalker125@reddit
Others are saying the legal route you should take, and you should, but this screams to me that the school is cash poor by spending the money that was presented upfront and now cant cover operating costs. Which makes sense if they are cutting people, offering pathetic refunds, or asking people to pay as you go.
nascent_aviator@reddit
Lol, as it should. This should have been their sign to nope the fuck out. Not because it's enforceable (it almost certainly isn't), but because it's a red flag for them being crooks.
Am I interpreting it right that you're a CFI at this school? Should be a red flag for you too.
Anyway they need lawyers (or small claims court), not reddit.
x4457@reddit
Shocked, I tell you.
Guysmiley777@reddit
Gambling? In this establishment?
clutches pearls
TxAggieMike@reddit
I wonder if we can do a Polymarket play on this school?
TxAggieMike@reddit
You are experiencing some of the main reasons we counsel against paying for training up front.
Sad to hear what you’re going through.
The only advice I can provide is to retain legal counsel and try to salvage what you can.
And do so early else you risk being in a long line of others taking legal action against this training provider.
Tangocharlie9er@reddit (OP)
Thankyou for your advice.
Mrs_Fagina@reddit
Flight school students can learn a bit from drug dealers.
You don’t hand over the money until you get the product.
And if you can’t get the entire product, you don’t pay the entire amount up front.
And if the deal seems sketchy, you walk because the guy’s probably wearing a wire (this one may not pertain entirely to flying)
EliteEthos@reddit
This is weird if this isn’t about you.
Why are you finding legal options for members of the school who aren’t you?
Presumably you have a copy of the signed contract. Sue them.