What's a Kettle?
 

Somehow this term has evolved some time in my 10+ years at FT. But I've never encountered that term until the past 2 months.

Please help.

Kettle is short for "Ma and Pa Kettle," i.e. a naive and uninformed casual traveler, as in, "I heard a Kettle with an economy ticket tell an FA, 'But I thought we could just sit anywhere. Aren't all the seats the same?'"

Related term: Gomer, short for "Gomer Pyle," meaning a louder and stupider Kettle, as in, "This Gomer boarded and said, 'Well, Golly, I wish I had a seat by the window because I like to keep it rolled down to get me some of that fresh air.'"

More than anybody would want to know about the Kettles

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

Are they related to Sheeple?

Also, Kettles are often portrayed as timorously and uncritically accepting any new air travel security procedure.

And with that definition the Sheeples ARE related to the Kettles.

I've been Platinum on Delta for 3 years and Gold for about another three and I still don't know what people are talking about half the time on this board. Thanks for cluing me in.

So many acronyms too, I don't know what half of them are either.

Are you a snob if you call someone a Kettle and am I one?

As Jeff Foxworthy might put it, "You might be a Kettle, if you're not sure if you are one or not." :D

I doubt that Ma Kettle would have. She was one feisty woman in her day. :)

The appropriation of Kettles as a descriptor is a stroke of genius though. ^ A lot of their movies (No, I haven't sat through any of them ;)) are based on travel, and the Kettles were the Beverly Hillbillies of their time.

Finally a thread that explains important terms in crisp concise sentences.

Thank you PTravel!!

It really should be in the glossary, shouldn't it? @:-)

kettles r us lately....bw will end up the yr w/4 trips, me w/6....not like the good old days when we did 4-5 intl trips/yr, wouldn't buy unless we were ug'ed....now, just hope i can make it to the gate....good luck to all...

What's a kettle?

If you have to ask, you may be one.

It seems like anytime I talk to a FF under 35 they have no idea of the originality of the Kettle theme (in other words, they have never heard of the series I guess back from the 1930s.)

My favorite are the ones that get on the plane and see the F seats and get excited (usually because those seats will house their 350 pound body much easier) only to realize that after that partion the seats become much different.

Thanks - so it's not just an FT term them. :)