Originally Posted by jonjo123
Obviously Oxford would hopefully (so they say) allow me to get in with a big airline pretty much straight out of training.
"So they say" is the operative phrase in that sentence. Do some research on here and see if you can find much evidence to back that sentence up. You'll see both sides of the story pretty quickly.
Going to the USA is a good starting block. I personally did my PPL over there and it was a great experience. However, I wouldn't like to get too much experience over there...probably just the PPL and 100hrs hour building then do the rest in the UK...you can have too much fair weather experience and not enough marginal weather experience, but that's just my opinion.
There are plenty of small / large modular schools that are well respected when it comes to doing your CPL/IR.
If I was in your position, I would do the PPL and some hour building in America...somewhere like Florida or California. Then I'd come back to the UK to do the ATPLs and start with the CPL syllabus. Move on to the IR / ME ratings and and if you want to, go for the instructor rating too.
That said, research also the financial implications and the implications of a recession on the aviation industry...there are plenty of threads on it in this forum. This might affect when you want to start your training.
Good luck!