If the captain had his girlfriend in 1st class, good for him. At least he didn't have a boring last flight before the event. He couldn't control who the company hired to fly during his rest period so don't see why some of you say he was responsible. It was not his responsibility to make sure they could hand fly or not.
My sim check was in an electra I had never flown, eventually down to a one engine hand flown ILS with no visual because that was the only sim they owned. The job was in a 737. It wasn't hard but now it is all different. Hand flying isn't considered important because of the automation.
Low time pilots will fly cheap, that is important. Chief pilots don't control hiring now, management bean counters do.