Originally Posted by
goalie
[Moderator hat on]
The term "kettle" refers to the old movie characters "Ma and Pa Kettle" who were good old simple country folks who have not experienced much in life outside of their small town let alone the big city (think country bumpkin) and that could/can be translated to/carried forward to first time/very infrequent fliers who don't understand the flying world the way many of us do. Examples would be those who bring everything (up to the kitchen sink) to a security checkpoint only to be told they can't bring the items thru, same type of folks who buy-up to first class and have never experienced it before and etc. And yes, it can be used in a derogatory manner
It's a deliberately derogatory term employed here to make people feel better about the mistreatment of passengers they imagine as being different from themselves. Those without status are imagined to be hillbillies, a troubling and nakedly self serving equivalency.
FAB is right. As employed here, the term's intent is to reduce empathy toward those about to be mistreated by United.
It's true, frequent fliers without status are first in line for mistreatment. While I appreciate that FAB sees passengers as equals, the company he works for and the posters on this forum do not share that view.
To the OP: note that there are likely lots of 1Ks in F and that virtually all F cabin fares are Up fares. You may have very little leverage.