I recently paid for an A-320 type from Aerostar - and if I had to do it over again, I would have gone somewhere else. My assigned sim instructor was a CRJ captain who had an A-320 type-rating.
Sim partner assigned to me told me he hadn't flown anything bigger than a Piper. As you would expect, he crashed consistently - and repeatedly - all week. Very little improvement, even with his PNF skills.
Nice enough dude, just in way over his head. I had never flown an Airbus, but I'm typed in a few other planes (all Part 121 training) - so I understand the typical protocol in getting typed. When I asked for a sim partner who was at least familiar with CRM, it seemed to really upset the executive mgmt at the company.
In fairness, my instructor fully understood that I needed an adequate partner - and promised me it would happen. He probably tried, but the top brass was determined to type the other guy (my sim partner). After session 6 - where we're signed off for the check ride - we had a different instructor, who told me that he wanted to give me one more session before signing me off. He said that since he was an Airbus captain, he knew what needed to be addressed before I took the check ride. I agreed to it (any remedial sessions are paid for by the student - above the original ten grand), and expected to be called by Aerostar with the updated schedule.
Instead, they put me back with the original instructor (CRJ guy) and the same sim partner (we were on lesson six, and he was still on lesson one). Since we had gone past the ten days that I had scheduled to be at Aerostar, I had to fly back home to check in for a four-day trip.
I emailed the company and told them I'd be back immediately after my trip to resume training, and that I would bring a friend with me to sit in as my PNF - who was an A-320 capt at Virgin America. Aerostar's mgmt was clearly upset, and told me "I was not permitted to leave." This was in February - and I still haven't been rescheduled. The fine print says they have complete control over the schedule - and despite my efforts to get them to schedule me, it's not happening. They either ignore my emails - or respond with a promise they don't follow through with.
They have my 10K, and I can't get them to 'allow' me to complete my training. After two months of not being scheduled back in the sim, I finally had enough - and went to the local FSDO and spoke to their POI. Now they're REALLY upset - and requiring me to sign a non-disclosure agreement to continue training.
They had an opportunity to fix this from the very beginning - and for whatever reason they chose not to. By creating 2 month-long gaps between sessions, they are also creating the need for me to buy more sim sessions just to get back to my proficiency level from my last session. Not a good business practice - especially since they profit from it, and the customer gets screwed. As I said, I wish I had gone somewhere else for the type.