We were flying international to Canada so if not for the 12:15pm flight, which got us home by 7:30pm that night, we would have been getting home after 11pm with a child who had to go to school the next day. So I was happy to pay the premium to make sure we didn't miss our flight, but booked the class of airline ticket to make sure we could change our flights if we did end up arriving late. So actually the important take away is to have a good backup plan available just in case you can't get to the airport on time.