From what I can tell, I’m in a similar position as many of you - researching flight schools and the cost of beginning a career as an airline pilot. I’ve read the FAQ for ATP and many of the forums on this page but I’m hoping to get an answer regarding two questions:
1.) For those who are married with young children, what options do I have for health insurance during flight school and until hired by a regional airline?
2.) I live in Southern California and obviously have a high cost of living to maintain. I’m aware that you can include up to $800/month into your Sally Mae loan for living expenses but I would need significantly more than that to survive 7+ months. What is the likelihood of financing more for living expenses?
There may be a few options. Your current employer should offer you a COBRA extension for some time. There’s universal healthcare available and if your spouse works perhaps you can go on hers? This is btw one of the reasons the airline partnerships are so attractive. Many will offer you healthcare once you accept conditional employment.
Many people take out additional funds to cover living expenses. How much is available will obviously be based on your credit and income.
Call the admissions department and ask them about the living expenses questions.
As for health insurance, check out the Envoy Cadet program, it offers health insurance once you sign on with them and in my opinion is the only way to go.
You can combine the housing ($1,200) and living expense stipend ($800) for a total of $2,000/mo. The housing allotment from the loan does not have to be used towards ATP’s accommodations.
Thank you for this. This helps quite a bit and I appreciate your time here. I’ve done a bit more digging into the airline partnerships and have found a few that are very attractive for that reason.
Thank you! I immediately looked into Envoy and am very interested in their Cadet program. I had researched a few others but Envoy has peaked my interest for sure. Thank you for this!
Thank you so much for your response here! This is exactly why I knew asking this question on this platform could be so beneficial. I had no idea that I could use that housing allotment for my own personal housing.
Do you know how the loan payments from Sally Mae are made? Do I receive the entirety of the loan upfront or do I get monthly payments via direct deposit from what is left over after ATP receives their portion?
Sallie Mae will make the tuition payments on your behalf and will meet our payment schedule.
The additional funds that you include (examiner + knowledge test fees, training materials, and housing/living expenses) will be dispersed on the BankMobile Vibe Debit Card that we send out in your training bundle. This card functions as a standard debit card. If you’d rather have the funds distributed into your checking account (as a direct deposit), that is an option as well.
Examiner and knowledge test fees will be available to you on that card (or in your checking account) 5-7 days before a checkride. DPE’s require the fees to be in cash, so that should allow time for you to visit an ATM and take those funds out.
Housing and Living expenses (up to $2,000/mo) are distributed to you monthly for you to pay your bills.
Training material funds are typically available 4-5 days after you start training. We recommend that you purchase these materials upfront and use the loan as reimbursement to yourself.
Okay great all of that makes much better sense now. I’m familiar with Bank Mobile and how disbursements work with them so that’s perfect.
Last question I have - If I apply for financing through Sally Mae without a cosigner and either 1) don’t get approved for whatever reason or 2) don’t get approved at a rate I’m comfortable with, can I immediately reapply with the addition of a cosigner? Or is there a waiting period to reapply for financing?
The Envoy program is a good option. For what it’s worth, when I was a CFI in California I enrolled in subsidized insurance under Covered California. It was as “good” as you would expect it to be, but I was certainly glad I had it. Perhaps before you receive benefits from Envoy, for example, subsidized insurance could help fill in the gaps between employment which would help you avoid paying the tax penalty for not being covered.
Thanks, Tory. To be quite honest, I’ve never really researched health insurance options outside of my employer because I’ve never had to until now. From what it sounds like, there are options available that many of you have had success with so that’s good to know for sure.
Did you do the Envoy program? I’m curious if the bonuses advertised on their website’s are paid in a way that could ultimately reimburse the Sally Mae loan for ATP?
I am currently flying for Horizon. At the time, my Tuition Reimbursement was sent directly to SM, but I did have the option of choosing to have the money sent directly to me.
I can’t speak for Envoy. You would need to discuss that with ATP.
Just so I have it straight, Horizon essentially reimbursed the full cost of ATP in one lump sum? Meaning, your loan for flight school is now completely paid off?
Ha! No. That would have been awesome. I received about $8-9,000 in total from Horizon which was paid out over the course of about 1.5 years.
I believe, at the time, the deal was up to $11,000 in tuition reimbursement. Thing is, I had about 900 hours TT when I was accepted. So, I missed out on 400 hours worth of reimbursement since that’s how they structured the deal: Apply at 500 hours and receive $5/flight hour until reaching 1500 hours TT. Then, $500/mo for the first 12 months as a First Officer for Horizon.
Their reimbursement program may have changed too by the way. Each airline has their own deal with ATP. I would reach out to ATP for specifics.
Ahh I see! I didn’t think so but I was thinking, “man, sign me up!” That seems like a pretty standard reimbursement range from what I’ve been seeing researching around.
Thanks for all the help, Tory. I really appreciate it. I’ll reach out to ATP for more info.
As Tory mentioned, Horizon reimbursed around $8,000-$9,000, and the amount will vary depending on what airline you decide to sign on with and when you sign on. For example, SkyWest currently offers $17,500 in tuition reimbursement, all while you instruct for ATP.
You will have time throughout the program to decide on an airline that is most desirable to you (factoring in where they are based, pay, tuition reimbursement, upgrade times, etc.), and frequent recruiters are coming out to training centers as well. Information on all partnerships and incentives can be found here: Airline Pilot Hiring Partnerships / ATP Flight School