didn't know what to do with the throttles because he never touches them. He lets them work in automated mode
Unfortunately we are trained to fly this way we and not allowed to touch them.
Manual/hand (no autopilot) flying with/without auto-thrust/auto-throttle is strictly off limits to some captains. I suppose they are just trying to protect themselves. They say they are not prepared to stand up on trial in court and be chastised for not flying on autopilot, in accordance with SOP.
I suppose if they if they want to be ultra conservative, then just don't fly at all
Fair enough in IMC if the workload is high, but I have had captains even prevent me from manual flying in DAY VMC
Some tell me that is the way the aircraft has been designed to flown, on auto-pilot as long as possible, and so it should be flown that way. Manual thrust is strongly discouraged.
Should see some of them panic if it's not on autopilot, kind of like its some type of major catastrophic failure.