Air India — Not issuing boarding pass even after web checkin

Address: Mumbai City, Maharashtra, 400059

Website: airindia.in

Date & place of incident: 27th oct'16, csia mumbai
Flight number: ai 639
Pnr: jlebj

I had a flight from mumbai to bangalore on which has scheduled departure at 09:10 am. i already did a web checkin and have a boarding pass in mobile but not a hard copy.

I reached the airport at 08:30 and tried to print the boarding pass via self checkin kiosk. kiosk was showing weird error and hence went to check-in counter and asked the personnel for the printed boarding pass. they redirected me to their manager saying it can't be issued as i was not before 45 mins.

I clearly informed them that i did web checkin and showed my boarding pass on mobile. despite multiple efforts that they denied me boarding pass. manager was not even ready to hear me and simply told me that boarding gates were closed. note that it is still 40 minutes before scheduled departure of the flight.

When i tried to explain the situation, manager was very rude in behavior, simply asked me to "go out, have snacks and take next flight" and back to her business without even listening to the issue. i tried to speak to other people at checkin counters, but no one was ready to listen.

Every one was saying that boarding gates were closed even if there was more than 30 mins from the departure. irony was that, i got a phone call from departure gate personnel at 09:10 (departure time) as a final call for boarding.

I tried reaching air india customer support couple of times which went in vain.

I don't understand the reason why i'm not permitted to board the flight even when i had the boarding pass. they just had to print the boarding pass.

I wasted more than half a day because of this and i had to book next flight at a premium price. i need full refund of this flight booking and action against the manager.