Originally Posted by
number_6
It seems what the airlines get and what you get from DHA is very different. Maybe for data privacy reasons ... did they validate your identity at start of the call, with more than the passport number? Personally I wouldn't worry about your situation and there may well be systems that the call center was not accessing for various reasons.
Yes, they TRIED to retrieve our information in their system but both reps were not able to, with the Passport Number, Full Name (incl middle name fully spelled out), DoB, PoB - Nada. They could not find a trace of the passport that has ETA attached.
The male rep I first talked to actually seemed more knowledgeable as he did not confused ETA with Visa. He said ETA system was as scanty or worse than the system the guy said he was using.
He told me if he could not find my HKSAR passport that had ETA attached, it would be useless to use my US passport to check. He did not want to try it.
The female rep I got many hours later insisted ETA was one type of Visa - from that point I knew she was just worthless because she did not even know what an ETA was - It is NOT a Visa. I pointed out ETA stands for Electronic Travel Authorization and it definitely is not a Visa.
There is no Visa Grant Number nor Client ID for applying / being approved an ETA, because simply put, ETA is NOT a Visa.
Unfortunately, she insisted she was right and I was mistaken... This is a government employee manning a Global Call Center line for the Australian Home Affairs, Immigration Dept....