Air Canada credit card verification policy leaves woman stranded (2016)

Posting this because this is happening to someone I know right now. Their flight does not leave for another hour or so, but they will not be allowed on the flight. The flight is from India to Canada, and was booked months ago, on a Canadian credit card. Air Canada in India say that she will not be allowed to board the flight unless the person in Canada who booked the flight goes to the airport, in Canada, and verifies the credit card.

I have not found anything about this policy in FAQ, and this was not raised over the past weeks until the person actually reached the airport to check-in.

Edit: I see that some sites list showing a credit card at check-in as a policy (0), so this seems to be a well-known problem. Air Canada don't list it as a requirement (1).

2nd edit: I’ve just found out that they were allowed to check-in online, with still no notification that credit card verification would be required! I have asked Air Canada whether the flight happened to be overbooked. I hope that’s not relevant.

(0) https://www.triptipedia.com/tip/dg6si2W/airlines-verifying-y... (1) https://www.aircanada.com/us/en/aco/home/plan/travel-require...

Note: I have shortened the headline because I decided it was more important to note that this article was from 2016, than the country it occurred in, and it was over the character limit.