Definition of a "kettle"
 

Hi all, still relatively new to FT, but one word I've seen thrown around a lot is "kettle." What exactly is the definition of a kettle? I'm guessing that it's used to refer to inexperienced flyers. If so, why the word "kettle"?

Thanks

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I thought it was more related to kettle, pot... and that sorta' thing...

:D

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ma_and_Pa_Kettle

Pa (Franklin Kettle) is a gentle, slow-speaking, slow-thinking and lazy man. His only talents appear to be avoiding work and winning contests. Ma (Phoebe Kettle) is a robust country woman with a potato sack figure, raucous, more ambitious and smarter than Pa, but not by much, and can easily be fooled

;)

It probably relates back to movies in the 40s and 50s featuring Ma and Pa Kettle. I actually remember watching some of those "a long time ago".
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ma_and_Pa_Kettle

and thus they drink the tsa kool-aid without hesitation

The name "kettle" was invented in the late nineteenth century by the drivers of Hackney carriages as an attempt to distinguish between their regular passengers and passengers that used the carriages infrequently. It is thought that credit must go to a character name Arthur Mow.

As you may know the London taxi drivers motto is "He was a stranger, I took him in and made him tea". Tea is made from a "kettle" and thus the phrase "put the kettle on" referring to the stranger became shortened to just "kettle". This distinction helped them to maximise fares for journeys which would not naturally contain a diversion other than that introduced by the cabbie when he had a "kettle" in his cab. It was a subtle way of letting other cabbies know that they were going to take someone "for a ride". So "kettles" are unsuspecting passengers.

First, welcome to FT!

Second, it's a derogatory term used by FTers to describe infrequent travelers & normally used in condescending tones or phrasing by the FTers...

Third, the others have carried out the history part pretty well.

Cheers.

On the AC forum we use the term VBIT more than Kettle.

VBIT = Vacation Bound Infrequent Traveller

It's Us!
 

Ma and Pa Kettle was us last weekend checking into a very nice 4*+ hotel after valeting our car, with throngs of very nicely dressed business men and women along with shops off of the lobby for Gucci and Louis Vuitton. I look over at my wife as we stand at the elite member check in desk and she is carrying her traveling pillow (no pillow case) and Trader Joe's bag with snacks and bananas hanging out of it.

Hey! Our money is as good as anyone else's right?

Oooohh Boy...

Question has been asked and pretty well answered. And since this isn't technically a CommunityBuzz! topic, we'll close it.

Please feel free to contribute to the many other active threads in the forum.

Thanks.

_________________________

Cholula
CommunityBuzz! Co-Moderator