Excellent, buuuuut...
To anyone who might have wandered here looking for info about AAG Philippines (and maybe an idea of what to expect after), good day.
I finished my flight training with Alpha about a couple of years ago and I'm confident to say that it is one of the best schools, not only in the Philippines but also in the Asia Pacific region. If you plan to enter the aviation industry, you'll get the best education there. But with that out of the way, I have a few things to say about the school as my batchmates and I experienced it.
1. Alpha has had a scheduling problem. The school has been expanding even before I started my training, and with that, I think they over estimated their capacity to take on new students (either that or their marketing and sales department just didn't care about capacity since they earn commissions per student). Sure, they've had a batch that finished up to their A320 rating in 13 months, but by my time, it took me and my batchmates about 24 when they promised to let us finish within 15. Funny thing is, if we didn't have any down time, I think it would have been possible to finish on time (longest time with no flight was maybe about 12 weeks; another experience was when we were flying about every 3 weeks just so that we wouldn't need a school mandated recurrency lesson) So if you took on loans or have allocated funds for living expenses, please take note of this.
2. There's a culture of seniority, like any other school in the Philippines. This actually carries over to when you enter the airlines so might as well let you know now so there's no culture shock. During my time, every little infraction had a punishment, from doing a round of squats, push ups, etc, for all the students at the flightline (you'd have to be careful about pissing off your collegues in the upperbatch). It had a 2-fold purpose: you'd remember not to repeat that mistake which pissed everyone off, and the newer students get to build up their muscles in the arms and legs. However, the seniority thing led to some taking advantage. I think they eventually banned the students buying food for the people in the flightline, but during my time, it was an expectation for every milestone.
3. AAG Philippines is a for profit company. You might be getting the best education your money can buy but all that marketing overstates a lot of things. Sure, the Asia Pacific region has a big demand for pilots (at least before COVID), but what they don't tell you is that most of them are looking for pilots with at least a moderate amount of experience. Even some of the airlines in the region expect at least 250 hrs with an MEIR, which the school doesn't technically provide (an A320 rating is separate from a ME rating, don't let marketing tell you otherwise!) Out of all my batchmates only one or two made it to the airlines without anything shady happening in the background. Others have had to shell out a few million pesos / tens of thousands of dollars for pay to fly programs, legitimate or otherwise. A few pursued an instructor rating which is a hit and miss in job hunting in itself, while others just abandoned the dream.
***. COVID. Getting pilot training now is just bad timing. Airlines are furloughing pilots, parking aircraft for long terms, etc. Even if the economy recovers and the industry goes back to pre COVID operations just in time for your graduation, you'd be competing in the job market with those with the furloughed pilots, as well as graduates who've finished their training since the COVID crisis began (yes, flight schools are still operating today, have been so since the June or July 2020) and the students are coming back to finish what they've started. So unless you're a famous tv personality like a certain schoolmate of mine, or have really strong connections (like knowing the head of operations or human resources strong), it'll be really really hard / expensive to get into the airlines.
Hey, I could be wrong. Most pilots might have been at retirement age by then. The industry might bounce back very quickly after a vaccine is made available. Everyone might have though the same thing I did and avoided flight schools leaving you with no competition at all. But if you're going to take out a loan, use your parents' retirement money, or leave a very stable job for a career in aviation, I'd advise you to please reassess whether or not you want to become a pilot.
Don't get me wrong, flying is fun and fulfilling, but afterwards, from what I've seen, it's been a cause for heartbreak, stress and depression for most of my peers, even before COVID hit. A few later confessed that they were greedy when choosing the profession, seeing the salaries of pilots, so they never actually had fun during their time in school and that's the worst place to come from.