Check Airman:
You are correct. For part 121, the minima are increased for restricted (less than 100hr) Captains. However, there is no hard limit on hand flying down to minima. The company wants us to use the AP if the visibility is low, but we can be dispatched without it all the way down to 200ft and 1800RVR...
Like I said it was probably a company restriction (TWA). No FD or autopilot it was LOC MDA as DA and not less than 3/4 or RVR 4000.
The restricted captain limitation is across the board for all U.S. carriers. Kind of stupid for a 7,000 hour 727 captain newly checked out on the 767.