I have a few co-workers that came through the military route and while, yes, they don't have any debt, they still have military commitments that they need to comply with. Some chose to go into the reserves and it seems they constantly have to take military leave to go work on their weekends and such. It just seems like a big hassle to me. I came through the civilian route and I'm still paying back student loans and should be done in the next couple years, but I don't have anyone telling me what to do on my weekends or telling me I need to commit to a week of military duty every so many months. However, they choose to stay in the reserves or active duty because they want to be able to earn retirement income, which would be nice as well. So, there are always pros and cons with the military.

Another option that I wish I had known about when I was training is some of the foreign airlines, such as Cathay Pacific, JAL, ANA, etc. have pilot programs. I have a friend who's girlfriend just finished the Cathay Pacific program in January - it took her two years, although she already had her Commercial Pilot Cert when she started. And now, she's flying either Airbuses or B777 airplanes, she's based in Hong Kong. The training is part in Hong Kong and part in Australia. She said there were applicants from all over the world and it was very competitive.

So, you could get all your ratings up through Commercial and not have to build time as a CFI. The catch is that after they put you through the training you are under contract to work for them for 6-7 years or something like that. But, they pay for all your training...so, it's kind of like the military, but with a foreign airline.

As far as getting your pilot ratings as quickly and as cheaply as possible, I would not go the academy route either. The link kingsnake2 provided has the typical advertisement that these places try to bait you with - 35 hours to get your PPL,etc... If you have no experience in aviation like you said, this will be hard to do. The national average time it takes someone to get their PPL is 60-70 hours - that's almost double the price just for the PPL.

Don't believe the prices any flight school quotes you and always ask if they charge a fuel surcharge. Come up with your own estimate of what it might cost based on your own situation - study habits, how many times per week you plan on flying, what airport you choose to fly out of. Send me a message and I can send you a table that I use to estimate flight training expenses, you can tailor it to your unique situation and get a pretty accurate estimate.