Can airline deny one one's tickets if one doesn't present the credit card with which one b

This is on an international flight, Iberia Air, to Madrid. Credit card left behind in Florida. Flight out of DC. Airline has told purchaser they cannot have their tickets and board without presenting the card.

Can airline deny one one's tickets if one doesn't present the credit card with which one bought the tickets?theatre tickets

Merchants do this in many different situations (picking up tickets at a will call window for example) to prevent people from using an unauthorized credit card to make a purchase online or via phone. Generally you are told (often in fine print) that you will need to present the card that was used to purchase the tickets when you pick them up.

With airlines the credit card is often requested when you check in with e-tickets. If someone else has purchased your tickets, you can always get a notarized letter from them and a copy of their ID and card, authorizing you to pick up the tickets.

Can airline deny one one's tickets if one doesn't present the credit card with which one bought the tickets?opera house opera theater

Yes, they can do this, they do it as a protection against fraud.
Yes they can, the can also deny you passage without a proper picture ID, or if your are drunk.
Probably, unless there's another way you can identify you're the person who's name appears in the tickets, which most likely you would have your ID present, right? Then they shouldn't have any problems with seeing your id instead. I don't see why they make it a problem.
No, you just need to show another form of ID or another Credit card with your name on it.
They don't want ID, they want $$$$$. At some airlines, the computer at check-in is set up to ask for the credit card to be swiped and secret code on the card manually entered before the machine will print your boarding pass. So this could be a problem for you. If you have another credit card with you, they can probably work it out using the new card and let you board then sort out payment later.
I had this same problem once at Bradley. Our family was using the e-ticket option (which, while not exactly in it's infancy, was still a relatively new program) and when we were asked to swipe the credit card we originally used to purchase the tickets, we got a little confused (it was a Disney trip we'd purchased almost a year earlier). We swiped a couple of different cards in an attempt to get the machine to print our tickets, with no luck.

My husband went and found an available ticket agent who picked up the phone to call the airlines to help us bypass the eticket process just as I inserted the CORRECT card (I took that experience as a sign that we needed to streamline our wallets and get rid of several bankcards after that ridiculous exercise).

My understanding is that the credit card does not necessarily NEED to be presented, although it's the quickest way to get an eticket printed.

What would have happened to our family or the person that you refer to had the tickets been purchased online by a third party as a gift -- or as a way to get that person to another location in the event of an emergency? The purchaser would almost certainly have NOT been present and thus neither would his credit card. I can't imagine that an airline could, legally, deny a ticket for such a thing. Still, in these suspicious times, I suspect stranger -- and perhaps even tragic -- things have happened to weary travelers.

Of course I'm sure this won't help your friend now...I sure hope he a) found his credit card; and b) managed to get out of DC.