Tourz,
IMO, you have to really ask yourself what you want in terms of training location, can you keep your job or not and can you afford not to work, price point and chances of success, passing all training and getting a job which is the tricky bit and harder than it sounds. In my case, I am doing the learning all modular. I already hold a PPL and work for Ryanair ground staff whilst doing it all and will be leaving my job to commit to the flying phase once my ATPL exams are out of the way. I posted what my route looks like and some reasoning for it a few posts ago.
For me, The PPL was a really important thing because I was able to gauge if I loved flying as much as I thought I did to justify committing 60k towards it as a career and also to find out if I was mentally suitable to fly safely whilst still enjoying it. I did it intensively over two months on an intensive PPL course at Tayside Aviation in Scotland. I did it this way for the simple reason so that I could test my ability to fly all the time whilst learning and doing the ground exams etc. It went quick and was a challenge some days but it was as close to line flying as I could get without being on an intensive integrated ATPL course and 100k later... I proved to myself I was mentally and physically capable of flying every day and it gave me real confidence. I would really recommend gaining a PPL anyways because it's yours for life and you can really enjoy it like many professional pilots do on weekends and other days. General Aviation flying is so fun!
Keep looking at training options however. Don't put pressure on yourself to make a quick decision because thats how you end up in a bad situation with a lot of money at stake. I also suggest you maybe visit a few more flight schools you like the look of and discuss finance, training plan, success stories and compare them to what you want. I actually went to a pilot careers live event in London that is hosted every year 2 or 3 times but they also do them in different locations where all the big schools and others you maybe haven't found yet will attend and speak to you in person.
If you are Cabin Crew, Speak to some younger first officers within EK who are likely to have been in your shoes not long ago and they can provide some insight. I still to this day speak to pilots through my work and get lots of good advice and recommendations from them. I am also pretty sure emirates has a training school now in the UAE so even look internally within them.
I am doing my ATPLs just now and I can tell you straight up that you will get a shock when you start to see how much work is involved. Not even PPL exams and learning can prepare you for the amount of volume that you must learn. People don't lie when they say it's challenging haha. I however have spaced mine out over a year and do not have to worry about integrated timescales to complete them. Some big airlines want 90% grade average on them from candidates applying for jobs and some airline on the other hand don't bother as long as you passed them all.
Lastly, I wish you good luck in your decision and wish you every success!
Last edited by GAPilot261087; 3rd Mar 2018 at 11:37.