I don't wish to digress into the s.....ubstance of God's attack on training abroad, except to say that you would have the same bollocks if you had just qualified at School X in Scotland and then turned-up to hire an aircraft at Club Y in Wales, or even the next town. Fact is friends, they all rubbish each other and find any excuse to make you pay more.
I'm not saying the training cost anecdote was untrue and you might still do a JAA PPL course for £3400 now in Florida (including food, flight and everything) but where can you do a JAA PPL here for £3400? Current/recent students say the real cost turns out to be £5-6K, or even more, in UK and that doesn't include any accommodation food and travel costs which are in the Florida figure.