Elghandi,
Thank you for sharing your experience with the forum. I really appreciate your help.
Last night was my first available time to try your work around.
Step 1 Disable WPA2-PSK on my motorola modem/router. WPA2 was already disabled. I saved this setting.
Step 2 Disconnect my wired connection to my HP Laptop and choose the WiFi. It no longer required a password/passcode.
Step 3 Restarted my iPad Air 2 and found WiFi in list. Same as WiFi in step 2. Choose this WiFi. It was very slow in connecting but connected.
Step 4 In Settings>General>Software Update an update was offered to 13.1.3. I selected this relatively small updateof 70MB. The iPad was slow but after a few moments, started the download. It may have asked me for my pin at some point.
Step 5 Patience. The iPad eventually downloaded and installed the update.
Step 6 Once update was complete, I immediately did a backup to iCloud. It asked me for my iTunes password and this time it accepted my password and started the backup.
Step 7 I went to bed with the backup running and early this morning all is well.
I would suggest if you have a older device like this iPad Air 2, that automatic updates should be turned off. Then let a week or two pass before any attempt to update.
Also, Apple should put a check box warning in the update process to backup your device to iCloud our to your computer. This will stop the grief some of us were going through fearing loss of settings, data and etc on these updates.
Also, I appreciate Apple's support both via phone, the Apple Store and Elghandi on this matter. I also appreciate Apple getting this bug fix upgrade to market this quickly.
I watched documentaries regarding the Moon Shot 50 years ago. Our iPhones have at least 100 times the computing power that landed men on the Moon and brought all of them back home. Col. Neal Armstrong had to shut down the computer system in the last seconds due to an overloaded system and land the craft manually. Let's try to be appreciative of the long hours the Apple developers spent on these devices and the many ways that they are enhancing our existence here on earth. They saved my old iPad from extinction, saved my vital data, pictures, videos and other things that I am not even aware of. I am blessed.