Actually ClimbAndMaintain, I will have to respectfully disagree.
Here is a post made just a short while ago in the wannabe section. The only flying this guy could get was as a safety pilot.
http://www.pprune.org/interviews-job...ml#post6507249
Its a foot in the door. An opportunity to meet people. Experience. Its really useful for those guys and opportunities are so few and far between. I agree with everything that has been said. An ex-captain is of course going to be far more useful than some low-hour pilot. Its a no-brainer and the reason this guy and many others like him will be picked over the wannabes every time. But an ex-captain doesn't need this. Its just something to fill his/her time. It just seems a bit mindless. Go do something else - aerobatics, formation flying, build a kit plane, join a club. You guys have kept those seats warm for 30 years +. Let the kids have some free flying. They're the ones in massive debt, fighting to stay current and having to pay for aircraft hire just to get in the air.
I'm not having a go at the OP specifically. I see this all the time and it just seems silly. Its the Captains who are always the first to complain that FOs these days have no real experience. How are they supposed to get it when they are competing with pilots with several thousand hours, just to ferry a single engine aircraft about?