F35Captain

I am currently an employee for COMAIR as a gate agent, CSA, and everything else. As a gate agent I get to talk to different flight crews all the time, and ask them a number of questions. There is one question I ask them repeatedly and so far all of them have responded with the same answer. The question was whether or not a jet transition program was needed? and if so which one?

They all said that most airlines want you to go through such a program BEFORE they can even consider you, especially if you have low time.
Many crews stressed the importance of the program, even though it is extremely expensive.

They all recommended Flight Safety's airline transition program. Actually I spoke to an FO yesterday and he said he went through the program and highly recommends it.

I wanted to know what you all think about it?

FlyerJosh

It all comes down to how quickly you want to get an interview and how much money you want to spend. If you are in a hurry, it will cost you more to do a transition program.

If you have more time, I say spend the extra 10 months and flight instruct. Either way will most likely score you an interview with an airline.

BURflyer

Sounds like they guys you talked with needed some rest. If you have the pulse and the time regionals will hire you. If you have the money and are willing to fly full-time then just go through a pro academy like atp or ariben. Cost is about 40K there. Flight Saftey is the most expensive school in the country, about 100K. Why? Because they have you pay to do a whole bunch of stuff you don't really need including hours and hours of simulator time. If you do the jet transition, you are only cheating yourself, your fellow pax who rely on you for their saftey, and future employers who have pilots in the interview boards would not like to see that you paid your way to a regional job. Take the time and do it the right way.