Vacation flags and timeouts

I'm seeing something apparenty contradictory on the site. The FAQ says, "If a user is on vacation you will not be able to claim a timeout until their [sic] vacation ends."

But many players in their profiles say something like this, "I'll claim skulls unless I see your little vacation flag."

So which of the following is true? (1) Timeouts absolutely cannot be claimed if the person with depleted time has a vacation flag up, and the people who write those profiles aren't making sense (since they couldn't claim the timeout anyway), OR (2) timeouts CAN be claimed in spite of a vacation icon, and the FAQ is wrong.

If (2) is true, then what's the point of the vacation flag? Thanks.

The FAQ's are right. It has recently been changed and many players have not updated their profile.