My flight from Houston to Heathrow was around 650 bucks. I don't know if that's a lot or a little, but it seemed pretty inexpensive to me.
By way of comparison, my flight from Heathrow to Dublin was $250 bucks...and that was for a 45-minute flight, jammed into a tiny seat, where they charged me three bucks for a Coke and offered me a seven dollar snackpack that seemed to have nothing more in it than a scone/ paperweight and some runny Euro-yogurt.
On British Airways, you don't pay extra for anything. Really, you could leave your wallet in the cargo hold and you'd be fine. And what do you get? Well...
When you board the plane, there are members of the flight crew posted strategically so that you are greeted politely at every turn. It's kind of like walking into a big house with servants whose only job is to make sure you are comfortable. That's nice. It makes you feel like a guest, not a piece of luggage. (And they don't do any of that irreverent/ironic humor you get on Southwest. They wouldn't presume to be so informal with you, the guest.)
Unlike last time around, when I flew third class, this time I flew fourth class, i.e., "World Traveler." (British Airways has first class, Club World, World Traveler Plus, and World Traveler.) Even fourth class has comfortable seats in which you can actually sleep. It's not so much that they recline more than usual...it's that they have these little fold-out "wings" on the headrest that keep your head from flopping forward if you fall asleep.
The one shortcoming? The armrest, of course. I don't think there's a coach class in the world that has a decent armrest. And I'm always amazed that people will sit down next to you and take the whole thing for the whole flight, as if it were just for them. (If you mention this phenomenon around my father, he will tell you that monopolizing the armrest is a greater injustice than the O.J. Simpson verdict, the Tiananmen Square massacre, and the Russians' gold medal in basketball in the 1972 Olympics. Combined.)
On this flight, however, I'm sitting on the aisle, and--YES!--there is an empty seat next to me. My forearms will be able to kick up their feet, relax, and unwind. Enjoy yourselves, fellas. You've earned it.
Footnote: In my experience, there are two acceptable armrest compromises, neither of which requires an explicit spoken or written agreement. Either: a) one person takes the forward part of the armrest, and the other person takes the rear part; or b) one person takes the whole armrest for part of the flight, and the other person takes the whole armrest for the other part of the flight.
What do you do if someone doesn't honor their part of the bargain? There are some people in the world who will speak up: "Excuse me, could I use part of the arm rest? Thank you..." I'm not one of those people. I just sulk, arm jammed up against my ribs, fantasizing about horrific accidents and acts of premeditated violence that, if we lived in a just world, would have cost my seatmate his or her arm.