3rd party TA - No seats - PLENTY of seats!!
 

Called up BA today to see about the cost of an upgrade to my flights next month but because they were booked via a third party TA I had to call them instead. Spoke with someone from Opodo who claimed the entire flight was full and no possibility of upgrading. Checked with the good folks here and I see there are loads of seats in both WT+ and J. And a further dummy purchase on BA.com revealed no shortage of seats at all. What the hell?

Also, is it a new policy by BA to ask for your passport number as part of their security check before they will deal with you over the phone? Who the heck carries their passport with them when not traveling?

Is there someone on FT who doesn't know all their passports' numbers off my heart!?!? My goodness, how do you fill in all those immigration entry forms????? As for Opodo, that sounds a bit strange, unless they are not in the market for upselling the change. The reason why it may apply is if it was a Consolidator ticket, but I don't think Opodo does those now for BA.

[Always a good idea to stick a photo of your passport photo on to Google Drive or elsewhere in the Cloud, encrypted if preferred, just in case something happens. Like being bussed on a Domestic flight to the UK Border......]

That's not a workaround that can be relied upon: all third party reservations will now need the passport number now even if you are BAEC: the agent either forgot or didn't spot the reservation owner.

I put my passport number (and executive club number) as "phone numbers" in my phone's contacts.

I keep scans of my passports on my laptop in a secured file but didn't have it with me when I rang and never expected to be asked.

Still don't understand the Opodo thing though. You would think they would be eager to make a few extra bucks.

In the land where you don't need them for purely domestic flights, and 85% of the commercial air travel is purely domestic, it's probably a fairly low memorization rate among the USA contingent.

Simply keep the passport number(s) and related data in your contacts. If you fancy a bit of security, file them under a fictitious name in your contacts.

Maybe Opodo didn't have any seats from their inventory to sell you - hence it was 'ful' - and I'm guessing any fees they might earn from processing the upgrade via BA aren't worth their while.

So, you lot keep your card pins under Daniel Diners, Marc Master, Alex Express, and Victor Visa!? :D

If this was Emirates married segment / return availability would explain it. But BA doesn't typically run as complex algorithms.

i.e looking at upgrading from within your booking offers vastly different availability vs new booking availability.

Nah, I just use 1Password, which actually has a category for passports, ID cards, etc.