Start by bearing in mind that the flight is short (LHR-BCN will be less than 2 hrs in the air whatever the timetable says). The Y and C product is actually very little different. The seating is essentially the same. Although C is sometimes less full than Y and therefore feels more spacious, sometimes it is the converse; specially on early morning and late evening flights which tend to attract a lot of C travellers.

The food is largely inedible whichever class you are in and whether hot or cold. The quarter plastic bottle of C champagne is served warm and is of poor quality even if it has a well known brand label ....

Only worthwhile thing about C is priority check in esp at LHR which can be very chaotic in Y - or even C (which probably does not concern you greatly if connecting from/to a US flight). Lounges are a bonus but BCN is a nice new and quite civilised airport so lounge access is less of a necessity. BA LHR Terminal 1 lounge is OK but not one of BA's best.

In summary given a choice and paying my own way, I might grudgingly pay up to a max of US$100-150 per person return to go C rather than Y, but definitely no more.

Incidentally it is worth bearing in mind that a lot of UK - Spain flights are BA / IB codeshares and you will find that IB are often selling tickets (in whatever class but esp Y), at significantly lower fares than BA: even on the same flights. I recently picked up some hol tix to Spain on BA flights through the IB website at about 40% of the fare that BA were offering. Shop around !

[This message has been edited by Frequentflyer99 (edited 04-17-2003).]