flight training broker?

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A flight school linked from another thread goes on and on about how they are an actual school and not a "training broker". I've never heard of a training broker before. I understand the concept - basically some random guy you pay for flight training and they subcontract your training to someone who actually has a plane and instructors. As far as I know, I've never come across such a thing except for a couple community college courses that they clearly note are taught by the local FBO.

The way the site goes on about it, you'd think it was a chronic problem.
Are training brokers actually a common thing? Has anyone had any experience with them?

 

[James331]

You talking about that school in Texas?

I've never heard of one before think it was just something they made up to get folks to use their school

 

[mscard88]

First I've ever heard that term.

 

[weilke]

That is a thing when it comes to foreign flight students. The broker advertises in india and has local recruitment staff on the ground there. He takes the parents money for a large deposit and hires the training out to different part 141 schools in Florida. Some of the characters in that business have absconded with their depositors money and the concept has gotten a bad rap. I can see how this can provide value to a someone who comes from china or india and has difficulty navigating the maze of visa, TSA and FAA regulations. Hiring a middleman to handle all contacts with government officals is not uncommon outside of the US and europe, so something that would seem odd to you or me is not odd at all for a wealthy indian or egyptian family. The broker doesn't offer anything that the CSR at a well run school catering to foreign students wouldn't be able to do, but the schools themselves rarely have the local presence in the sending countries that facilitates the process.

The same exists for general college admission. The brokers go to all these small colleges that are hurting for students and 'sell' their foreign students in exchange for scholarships and tuition discounts. The students have aced all the standardized tests (ACT, SAT, TOEFL....) and are a valued commodity to the college administrators.

 

[OverTQ]

There is an infestation of misleading marketing websites that are designed to poach clients while they are searching online for aviation services. These "businesses" don't own or operate any aircraft, but aim to give the impression that they do. If someone signs up with them, they keep a large cut of the money (30-40% isn't unheard of), and then they try to find a real operator to provide the service at that large discount.

I've seen these companies go so far as to issue an actual gift certificate to a vendor they actually have no association with. The customers show up to the vendor (a flight school, tour operator, etc) with that gift certificate, and it's the vendor that has to be the bad guy and deal face-to-face with the angry customer. The vendor can refuse to accept it, as they should, and try to sell them their service, but the customer has already paid and doesn't want to pay again. It makes the vendor, who wasn't complicit at all in this, appear to be the bad guy. This is all done to encourage the vendor to go ahead and accept the gift certificate, provide the service, and accept a severely discounted price on the service.

It's a disgusting business practice, if you ask me. These websites very clearly mislead customers so that they can insert themselves as a middle-man where one doesn't belong. They simply deploy a better digital marketing strategy than most small aviation companies have, which attracts the client before they can find the real operators.

For instance, let's search for helicopter tours in Katy, TX. The first three websites that come up are:

• Texas Helicopter Service
• Katy Helicopter Charters
• Katy Helicopter Rides

All three of these give the appearance of being real operators. None of these are real. The branding is dynamically created. Let say I have a town called Bullsh*t, Texas. I can easily replace the city name in the URL, and get the following websites:

• Bullsh*t Helicopter Services
• Bullsh*t Helicopter Charters
• Bullsh*t Helicopter Rides

Remember, these are the first three websites that show up in Google. Only if you get down to the fourth website in the search results for "helicopter tour Katy, TX" do you get to a real operation. Beyond that, it's a mix of fake "brokers" and real operators.

This scam has been around for a long time. They do it for fixed-wing flight training, helicopter flight training, aerial tours, hot air balloon rides, skydiving, and a myriad of other activities where people are likely uneducated in the local providers and wouldn't know how to spot a legitimate one. A decade ago, a company that did this for skydiving was successfully sued for related activities.

As someone with a soft spot for both small business and aviation business, I've considered creating a digital marketing service that caters to aviation. I'd like to help legitimate operators employ ethical marketing techniques to increase their online presence and become easier to find. I think there's a need for it. (A lot of small businesses are behind the power curve when it comes to online marketing.) A portion of my motivation for wanting to do this is to help them cut out these shady middle-man "brokers".