[Butch Cassidy Slept Here]

How can one "make up" something that is published information?

It's called lying. If you haven't heard, US-based airlines are very good at it. Failing that, if a customer dares to show a photocopy of the given rule to the agent, the cops are called. Bottom line, when it comes to customers travelling on deep-discount fares, only those rules which benefit the airline are observed.

As to the long lines: The airlines brought that problem on themselves. I can't think of any innovation done by US-based airlines where the logistics to support it were, essentially, absent.