Firstly it is
Bond Aviation Training which have the 'Type Rated Training Organisation' (TRTO) approval –
not Astraeus –
please see my response to an earlier thread ( which somewhat compliments this one ).
The fact is that, if you do your type rating with Bond Aviation Training ( and assuming you pass – which you should do, because you were put through a rigorous pre-course selection process for that very purpose ) you are then free to proffer your skills and new found rating to anybody that will employ you, e.g. to EasyJet, or RyanAir, or maybe even to Astraeus, etc... – assuming, of course, that they’re recruiting.
Further assuming that an airline then happens to employ you, and being that you are already a type-rated pilot, there’s then no need ( or excuse ) for you to be joining them on a reduced salary for X number of years.
That said, should the airline try to sting you for a salary reduction, and some will, e.g. “As we’re now having to line-train you, we’ve got increased costs, and so if you want this job you’ll have to accept that you’ll be on a reduced salary for X number of years”, you can circumvent this by having completed optional line-training element which Bond Aviation are now offering.
Actually, if you do the maths, you will see that the salary reductions that the airlines impose - due to reasons of ‘training & experience’ - add up to be significantly more than the amount of money that Bond Aviation charge for getting you through the said same hoops purported as the reasons for impositions of salary reductions by the airlines.
As such the Bond line-training package option would seem to provide some useful upsides:
A). It reduces the risks to the airline of employing a dud, so making you a much more attractive employment proposition to them - hence you're much more likely to get the job.
B). Reduces the likelihood of you suffering any punitive salary reductions when you do join an airline – i.e. you should be joining them on the full wack salary.
And why is this so ?
It's because you'd be joining them as a type-rated qualified airline pilot, and better yet you have real airline operational experience under your belt !
Still don’t believe me ?
Imagine that you are an airlines Operations Director ( e.g. like John Mahon / hamrah, above ) and that you need to employ some pilots for you B737 aircraft. So you grab 3 CV's from the pile ( of hundreds ) and they are as follows:
1). Blah blah blah ( they were born, have a name, etc )…. (f)ATPL / 500 hours TT / PA23 Type Rating / 50.25 ME.
2). Blah blah blah ( they were born, have a name, etc )…. (f)ATPL / 500 hours TT / B737 Type-Rating / 51.25 ME / 1 hour B737 base training.
3). Blah blah blah ( they were born, have a name, etc )…. (f)ATPL / 500 hours TT / B737 Type-Rating / 150 ME / 101 hours B737 airline operations to Europe / Africa / CIS / North Atlantic – airline references available.
So who are you going to pick then - it’s hardly rocket science, is it ?!
Of course this is all academic if you can't afford to stump-up the money to do the courses - but I don't have the answer to that one, except to say that supply & demand will be the forces which influence the budgets which airlines have to provide training.