We've not shied away from base test classes. We have them in [mozillians](https://github.com/mozilla/mozillians-tests/blob/master/tests/base_test.py), [marketplace](https://github.com/mozilla/marketplace-tests/blob/master/tests/desktop/base_test.py), and [bouncer](https://github.com/mozilla/bouncer-tests/blob/master/tests/base.py), and possibly others. Getting a response code is really not something that belongs in a page object, so I'd prefer to see it in a base test class, or elsewhere.