"Which he worked out to be $20k cheaper."
Good luck with that.
It's a hell of a lot easier to go from JAA > FAA rather than the other way.
This is a false economy - trust me - I train conversion and most of the time they end up paying a lot more as they DO NOT convert in minimum hours.
If you want to fly JAA > train JAA.
Flying FAA without instructing is a very big false economy.