From what I see there, the issue about passengers congregating around rest rooms was cover by a TSA memo from in early 2004 noted below.

I would say AA is stretching it a bit to say that a FAA rule requires passengers to use the rest rooms in their ticketed cabin.



I would say that you are reading woefully out of date material. The TSA directive says ALL pax must stay in THEIR cabin. Period.

Sometimes the rules can be broken. It is when everyone wants to bend the rules to suit them that the problems arise.