well said average-punter, bitterness is not needed when people merely seek information. everyone has a choice.
It was just a bit of a shock to the system when I went to a CAE open day at the weekend and heard that EZY can ask for up to £38,000 for a TR. On top of the money I'd have to borrow for course costs, it's north of £120,000. Quite an intimidating amount to have to pay back over 8 years (2 year payment holiday).
hill.sam I'm not sure of the CAE agreement but at CTC (I've just got a job with easyJet through CTC) easyJet charge £25k for the TR which they underwrite for you through BBVA. repayments are around £500/month for 5 years, approximately.
The thing with borrowing the course costs, is yes it will be extremely tough paying it back. £1600/month (BBVA + TR) or something like that with a well documented low salary in the first year? Many guys on my course are fretting about how tough it's going to be.
A few of us however worked in reasonably well-paid jobs for a number of years and saved up a large chunk of the costs to make things very manageable. So as PUG said, for me it was actually affordable to go down the CTC route. If I had to borrow the entire course costs plus TR, I'm not sure I could do it. It all depends on what you want to do, it's a tough choice either way. Financial hardship for a few years in the beginning, or save up and make your life easier. I chose the latter...