Originally Posted by rickair7777

At 26, you still have time. Get into a good regional with MULTIPLE bases near your desired home. If I were furloughed today, I would not go get a job at a different regional, I would simply fall back on my previous sales/business background and work in my home town until I was recalled...no real family disruption.

The airlines care about primarily two things:

1) Ratings
2) Flight time

They don't give a rat's @ss where you got it, unless it was in the military. Many airlines (the better ones) prefer an instructor background, either military or civilian.

The "academies" will cost you a small fortune, and will rarely deliver any better training than a good fbo or local school. They will often use extortionary tactics to get you to stay once you figure out their scam...commonly they will threaten to give a bad reference on a future background check. The only way an academy will help you get a job in aviation is if it has the words "United States" in front of the name, in which case it will be free of charge.

A local school/fbo can save you money by allowing you to live at home. You will need to do your homework though, the flight training industry is full of con-artists, at all levels.