Originally Posted by
CargoOne
It is very fair indeed. You always forget to count how much company has spent on screening, sim assessment, convertion course - groung and sim, crm/wet/fire/first aid etc and finally on the line training. If you put that all together 7,5k sounds very reasonable to make sure people don't jump in a few weeks. All airlines hr/flt ops depts full of stories when pilots have left just after the line training completetion just because there was a couple of hundred quid better offer pop up around the corner.
CargoOne, I do see your point with regards to the cost to the company. However if a company is that worried that people will leave straight after line training, or within a few months; Either their selection process has failed or more likely people don't like the way they have been treated. A famous quote says "Train people well enough so they can leave, treat them well enough so they don't".
Airlines resorting into using excessive bonds (and £7.5k for rated pilots personally seems rather high) could raise the question why, after joining, FO's were keen to leave the company so quickly (and have to redo a selection and OCC for the next operator).