Please forgive me, but I live in Los Angeles and have never flown British Airways. (Please, stiffle the chortles now, if you please)

I'm flying LAX-LHR-BCN in June and have already booked the LAX-LHR leg, using BA's US fare sale to LHR that just expired earlier tonight.

Now I want to book the LHR-BCN leg. Ignoring for a moment the fact that BA.COM's "en_us" Web site won't let me book anything that doesn't start off in the US ...

Just for grins I plugged in "Business/Club" for the fare class (yes, I'm a sad git that mostly flies Coach), and was startled to see it come back with two individual fares of £ 241 each way, which when chosen combined to become ...

£ 186.80.

Strange addition you English lot have ...

Anyway, I thought that for an extra US $130 r/t or so over Coach it might be nice to try this "ClubEurope" thingie ... (especially since US Expedia was quoting $806 for "Business class" on the same flights)

Then I ran into a problem trying to book it on-line (It complained I didn't provide a "State" in my address - when I sure as bloody 'ell did!), so I called BA. Due to the time of night I got shuttled off to a guy in Germany, who laughed and said

"ClubEurope is just Coach class seats that are in the back and are separated from the rest of Coach by a curtain. Oh, and you get a full meal instead of a bag lunch. And the ticket is refundable/exchangeable vs. restricted."

Erm ... that's not "Business Class" as I know it over here in the States!

Is he right? Is that all that "ClubEurope" is over there? If he is, I won't bother ...

Special Added Bonus Round: I'm an AA AAdvantage member (but not BA), will I get AA f-f miles for the LHR-BCN-LHR legs? I'm already bummed at not getting the 10,000 miles for the LAX-LHR-LAX legs, but AA's flights to/from LHR were too close for comfort to BA's to/from BCN (1 hour layover one way, 50 minutes the other).