As an ATP student i have about 6 months of training left. I have an instructing job back home not associated with ATP. Will i loose any benefits not instructing for ATP? Am i still allowing to sign with an airline not instructing for ATP? Thanks.
Drake,
You will lose the benefit of Tuition Reimbursement by not instructing for ATP. You will of course be able to apply to any airline that you wish regardless of where you flight instruct. Your licenses are issued by the FAA and are yours to do with as you see fit.
Chris
Drake,
This is America and you can do as you like. The airlines will hire you regardless and while you may lose the Tuition Reimbursement you can probably just take it as a signing bonus. Shouldn’t be an issue unless the school is quiet and it takes you 12 yrs to build your time 
Adam
Ok thank you. The tuition reimbursement makes sense, i just didnt know if i would still have the ability to sign on with an airline once i start instructing.
You will miss out on ATPs tuition reimbursement deals with their regional partners…which are very good deals. There are, however, other flight schools that have negotiated tuition reimbursement contracts for CFIs with some of the prominent regional airlines. These are typically larger schools…not your mom and pop shops found at your local airport FBO.
As others have mentioned on this board, choosing to flight instruct outside of ATP just comes down to balancing personal priorities. One shouldn’t assume they will fly less at another school compared to ATP or earn less money by staying with ATP (a rumor). I will say that by instructing elsewhere, you will almost certainly give up the best training fleet of aircraft and maintenance program available across the US…period. ATPs fleet is massive and constantly being upgraded with the best money can buy. The maintenance program is also amazing. As someone who chose to stay local vs instruct somewhere else with ATP, the thing I miss the most is ATPs fleet of brand new 172s and a local maintenance facility staffed with plenty of A&Ps and an IA. That being said, I still manage to fly 80 to 100 hours per month and have tuition reimbursement with my regional of choice. I would have preferred to stay with ATP but living away from home for a year or two wasn’t an option.
Drake,
Of course you’ll be able to apply for a regional if you choose to instruct elsewhere. How do you supposed everyone else that didn’t attend ATP got there?
Tory
Long time lurker here in the planning stages of a career change. I would like some clarification. It seems everyone is saying he/she would lose the tuition reimbursement if they instructed elsewhere and not ATP. That does not seem true. Someone could go instruct at a competing school, such as L3, and still get the tuition reimbursement because L3 is an affiliated partner with Envoy, if he/she chooses Envoy. Am I wrong and missing something?
Robert,
You’d have to ask L3. Their website says that tuition reimbursement is available for CFIs that were graduates of their program. If I’m interpreting that correctly then Drake would not be eligible to participate in L3’s tuition reimbursement program, unless L3 makes an exception.
Tory
Robert,
You’re right and your wrong. ATP is not the only flight school that has airline partnerships that include Tuition Reimbursement. The question was if you do your training WITH ATP then instruct at another flight school locally would you lose it. The answer is yes because you’re not going to do your training at ATP then instruct at L3 (and visa versa). Schools that have career programs for the most part hire their own students to offer them the best opportunity for success. In most cases if someone doesn’t accept an instructor position with ATP (or L3 for that matter) it means their probably going local to a mom and pop school where there is no TR offered.
As I said it’s not really an issue since the money can still come later.
Adam
What you’re referring to is L3’s college tuition reimbursement program for in state tuition expenses. I think that’s different than what I’m talking about.
@Adam,
I think there are CFI’s who’ve trained at ATP then went to L3 and other flight schools to instruct. I would imagine it’s fairly common. It seems that the regional airline wouldn’t care where you trained as a pre-requisite to offer tuition reimbursement; just as long as you instruct with one of their affiliate schools.
I will do some more research. Thanks for all the responses. As always, it’s been very helpful so far.
Robert,
I never said you wouldn’t be eligible and despite what you imagine, the fact is it isn’t very common. Why? Again first preference goes to the student who just paid $80k and more important the student who went through the program they’ll actually be teaching.
Adam
I did reach out to L3 out of curiosity, waiting to hear back. Thanks for the suggestion.
Most L3Harris CFIs that I know went to Envoy through their pathway, or didn’t receive tuition reimbursement while instructing and opted to collect it on the back end as a hiring bonus. ATP’s tuition reimbursement is more prominent and better outlined (if that makes sense) than what I’ve seen at L3Harris.
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