Originally Posted by Stoked27

This confuses me. No one says you have to finish the degree if you use the GI bill for flight ratings through a university. You'll just need to finish the courses that you sign up for each semester. I have a B.S. and a Masters, but I signed up for university courses with my GI bill because the bundling grants you up to ~$37k per year at a private university plus BAH, rather than cashing out 12 months of benefits for $13k without BAH. Some universities will let you accelerate your courses by taking two flight courses per semester.

When using the GI bill for the $13k route, that's doesn't mean you can only access $13k annually; it means that you're trading 12 months of benefits for about $13k that you can use at a flight school. I get more than $13k in BAH each year, let alone the tuition and flight school fees that the GI bill covers. Cashing out your GI bill to train via Part 61 is a horrible financial use of your GI bill, but you might be able to finish your training a few months quicker. I don't think it's worth cashing it out. Some people feel that the timeline is more important so you can get your seniority at a major sooner, but all that debt for just a few months saved? Nothing in life is guaranteed, you might lose your medical, the economy could crash again, or you might want to fly corporate.

I would recommend working on your Private and IR before you separate. Then upon separation fast-track yourself through the university route for anything remaining so you can access $37k in a relatively short 1-2 semesters. Summer semesters are short so they're great for accelerated flight training. I would save the Commercial for after separation since it tends to be very expensive.