Been there, done that: "Safety Pilot" for a certain middle east airline with brand new F/Os onbard. I was a fairly senior F/O and as such ended up in the left seat to train the new F/O in the right seat at cruise while the Captain sat back in First Class dining and socializing. He usually left the flight deck in the climb at 10,000' and returned in the descent passing 10,000'. They paid me 80% of Captains pay and I had the dubious status of being a Training F/O or some such thing..
A bit unusual and not like the NAS program but different strokes for different folks and yes, it was on the same planet.
