KAL frowns badly on any pilot innovation not to use the autothrust. Their punishment culture puts fear in anyone deviating from SOP of maximizing use of automation. I've seen instructor management pilots who I had to fly with ( during the pilots' strike of 2001 and 2003 ) ashen face with morbid fear that we had committed a severe violation of SOP when I prevented the autothrottle from retarding the thrust levers which led to an EICAS caution message during an approach in extremely gusty conditions. It took much explaining to convince them that it was an absolutely " non - event " and they kept telling me that I had to put in an ASR!
The fact that someone stated an Airbus instructor pilot was onboard HAS COOLED DOWN ALL THE INSINUATIONS AND INNUENDOES. Sad but true; a lot of armchair pilots and inexperienced fools think that landing in gusty, turbulent crosswinds in NRT is a piece of cake. I have seen one airplane coming to an easy landing but the next one coming 2 minutes later struggling......the sudden changes can be really challenging; inexperienced watchers think the second one must have been flown by a novice!