Can't help you with the first point, but definitely true about the fare class having to match for both the inbound and outbound flights. I saw this little annoyance when looking at flights to NCE yesterday. Inbound went from £130 to £468 (in Y!!) depending on the outbound fare. Needless to say that I went and booked Easyjet instead. I wonder if BA are really missing a trick with this. If they allowed you to book mixed fare classes then I'd have certainly not have been bothered paying a little extra to book BA instead of EZ, but £400, no way, especially as the flight back was actually £130 in the lowest available fare class. Silly. Other airlines allow mixed fare class bookings (such as Qantas).