Originally Posted by LeisureFirst

You were lucky to have a booking requiring API to hand.

Or did you make a cheap one over the phone (e.g. Avios Y to Spain - which requires API) and then cancel within 24 hours for a full refund, entering your DOB in the meantime. Although a minor headache, sounds a lot less trouble and quicker than faxing BA and praying.

I'm a bit surprised this works, though. I would have thought that either the API DOB was separate from the BAEC one, or that having entered the latter it forced you to use it for the former - which would of course be a massive nuisance if you had the wrong one. Good thinking to try it, though, and lucky that it did.