Same thing just happened to me on Monday. Ground staff would not budge and insisted I had to wait til 3hours prior to departure time.
- BKK-DOH-ORD-YUL
- OLCI only generated a "confirmation pass". I suspect since the ORD-YUL was on AC, that's what prevent me from getting any boarding pass (mobile/email).
- Showed up for my BKK-DOH flight at 4pm. QR counters were open; tried different counters, explaining I have no bags to check. No dice.
- Security line staff turned me away since I had no boarding pass.
- Tried to beg for an earlier; was quoted 19000 THB. I declined.
- Was finally able to get boarding pass when counters reopened at around 10:50pm for the 2:10am flight.
- Ground staff pressed for my onward ticket from YUL. I just stayed calm and explained I don't need a visa to enter Canada as a US passport holder. My real plan was to forfeit the ORD-YUL flight and stay in ORD. Staff yielded in the end, but it did take up ~10 minutes between me, the check-in lady, her supervisor, and someone on the phone.
- The premium QR lounge was nice, though!