A couple of years ago these program were great. Tons of people were getting hired at 500 TT and 50 multi and there was a shortage of cfi's at many schools the hiring was so good at the regionals. Things are very different now. There's one big problem with these so-called bridge programs and preferential interview courses: You never know how long they will last. Here's an example:
I'll use GIA's PFT program as an example since that's who my airline (Pinnacle) is providing pref interviews to now. Let's say that you start from zero time today at GIA working towards that pref interview. You'll probably finish all your ratings and get to 500 TT in about 14 months if you work hard. Will we (Pinnacle) still be hiring in 14 months? If not, what good is that pref interview? Does the school include getting your CFI in the program? If not, what will you do if the airline stops hiring? Looks like you'll be spending more money to get your instructor ratings. Pinnacle just hired about 40 more guys from GIA last week. However, these guys were at GIA long before the pref interview program even got started. They just got lucky that Pinnacle came to GIA with a deal. Those people that go to GIA now have no idea whether Pinnacle will be hiring when they finish their training. It's a big gamble. You're much better off going the more traditional route nowadays. I used to recommend to people to go to these 141 schools like Comair, Pan Am, GIA, etc... The way the industry is now though, you're better off going to an FBO to get your ratings and instruct for a little while.