Training Bonds

[Lightning ace]

After hearing different things from third hand sources. Can someone clear up the issue of bonds.

When your new found employer puts you through a type rating with a bond to secure you. What form do these bonds take.

Are they an arangement between you and the employer. With payments taken out of your wages over the period. Or as I have heard from sources at British European. Is it a bank loan with interest to boot. That is paid to the bank and you have to secure.

Is there a general rule or are the airlines different on this.

If I didn't want a bank around my neck again. Should I pay for the rating up front, or would that make me a target for any redundantcies the airline might make in the future.
:rolleyes: :rolleyes: :rolleyes:

[Oleo]

LA - generally the bonds are an arrangement between you and your employer. You commit yourself at the time of signing your contract and completing your type rating.

You will not be aware of it: i.e.: you don't see it being taken off your pay. It should only arise as an issue if you want to leave before your bond period is completed.

If I were you, I would take the first job offered to you and just take the bond as a fact of life. Don't bother with trying to pay for it yourself - there is no benefit in that (and many detractions). If/when you have to leave, make your own arrangements to clear the bond. Apparently bonds are unenforceable in law (considered simliar to being an indentured servant) ... but then it depends if you "ever want to work in this town again"....

British European are "cannier" than most and arrange it so that you actually take the loan out with their bank and at the same time they deposit the amount of the bond with the bank as insurance for you in case they go bust. But if you try to do a runner, it is the bank to whom you owe the money, not BE - not great for your credit rating when you are trying to get on in life.

Hopefully you will get a job with a useful type rating and it is a company where you are happy to hang around for the period of the bond. If not, then just look at the bond as the price of the next steepping stone - none of us have a crystal ball.

If in doubt see a lawyer.