French language Q&A Forum

Is there a difference in meaning between "J'ai été là pendant quarante-cinq minutes" vs. "J'étais là pendant quarante-cinq minutes"?  My inclination was to use passé composé because it was an action that happened and ended, but I see the latter sentence in the lesson example.  Can someone please explain the difference?

I asked about this previously & the answer that was given was that both spellings were acceptable with the hyphenated spelling more widely used. But in the text of this lesson the first sentence uses "week-end" & the last sentence uses "weekend". At the very least wouldn't the convention be to use the same spelling throughout a composition unless directly quoting another written piece?