Headphones that get you through a long flight in one piece.

On a plane a pair of headphones really has one job, and that's shutting out the engine roar, the drink cart banging down the aisle and the toddler two rows back. Get that right and you can walk off a red-eye to London feeling halfway human. Get it wrong and you've lugged a pricey hunk of plastic across the Atlantic for nothing.

I'll be straight about how these got picked. I've been touring since 1978, but I don't put consumer headphones through a lab, so for the hard numbers I lean on folks who do it for a living, mostly SoundGuys and RTINGS. My own test is simple enough. If a pair can't beat the low rumble of a jet cabin, I don't much care how sweet it sounds or how long the battery goes.

Why noise cancelling earns its keep at 35,000 feet

A jet cabin at cruise sits somewhere around 80 dB, give or take, depending on the plane and where your seat is. Most of that racket is low and steady, the engines plus a lot of air rushing over the outside of the fuselage. That's right in noise cancelling's wheelhouse. A drone that never changes is easy for the electronics to predict and flip upside down, so planes are where ANC pulls off its best trick.

Without it most of us just crank the volume to drown the cabin out, and over eight or ten hours that's a lot of loud music pumped straight into your head. I've made my living with my ears for close to fifty years, so I'm a bit of a stickler about this. With decent ANC you can keep the volume down where it belongs and still catch every line of the movie.

Not everything with "noise cancelling" printed on the box does much on a plane. The cheap stuff leans mostly on the ear pads and a dab of processing, so it takes the edge off and that's about it. The flagships from Bose, Sony and Apple throw a whole bank of microphones at the problem (Sony's XM6 carries a dozen of them), and up there that's the gap between a bit quieter and hearing your music at a whisper. If you're curious how the trick works, I went through active cancelling versus plain old isolation in a separate piece.

What I'd look for in a pair for the plane

The cancelling goes at the top of my list, and right now the top of the heap is Bose's QC Ultra 2, Sony's XM6 and Apple's AirPods Max 2. RTINGS puts the Sony a nose ahead of the Bose, and SoundGuys got 89.4% noise reduction out of the AirPods Max 2, the best over-ear number it has. If you fly a lot, this is the one feature I'd happily pay up for, and my noise cancelling roundup digs further into it. Mid-priced pairs have come a long way (the $130 Space 2 measured 84%), and the flagships still get you a notch further.

Comfort is the sneaky one. A pair that feels fine on a half-hour train ride can be squeezing your head like a vise by hour six over the Atlantic, so look for a light clamp, roomy cups your ears don't touch and not much weight. Glasses wearers have it rougher, the arms break the seal and let rumble sneak in, and RTINGS says the XM6 pads have a harder time with that than most.

Long-hauls run anywhere from 8 to 15 hours, so battery counts for more up there than on your commute. I want a pair that gets through the flight and the layover without me hunting for an outlet at the gate. Most flagship over-ears are rated around 30 hours these days, though real results swing a fair bit (SoundGuys got 27 hours from the Bose and 37 from the Sony). Earbuds last 8 or 9 hours a charge and top up from the case.

Then there's the seatback screen. The entertainment system on most long-haul jets has a plain headphone jack, and your Bluetooth headphones can't talk to it on their own. You either plug in with a cable or use a little transmitter like Twelve South's AirFly Pro. The Bose takes a 3.5 mm cable or USB-C, the Sony has a detachable 3.5 mm cable, and AirPods Max 2 owners need Apple's $39 USB-C to 3.5 mm cable.

A good transparency mode matters more than you'd think. When the flight attendant leans in to ask chicken or pasta, you want to hear the question without yanking your headphones off. Bose and Apple both have a name for transparency that sounds natural, and from what I've read Sony's is fine, just a shade more processed.

Last up is how it packs. Most of the big over-ears fold or twist flat into a hard case that lives in your carry-on, and the XM6 finally folds again after the XM5 skipped it. The odd one out is the AirPods Max 2, still sold with Apple's skimpy Smart Case, which does next to nothing for it at the bottom of a bag.

Over-ears or earbuds on the plane?

Both work fine up there. They just give up different things.

Over-ears like the Bose, the XM6 and the AirPods Max 2 win on battery and on comfort over a long day, and those big cushions block a good chunk of noise even with ANC switched off. For long-hauls and anybody who flies every week, I think they're still the way to go. The trade-off is bulk in your bag, ears that get toasty after a few hours, and a headband that fights you if you try to doze against the window.

Earbuds have closed the gap more than I'd have guessed. SoundGuys measured 88% noise reduction on the WF-1000XM6 and 90% on the AirPods Pro 3, right in over-ear territory. They're easier to sleep in, your ears stay cool, and they vanish into a jacket pocket. What you give up is time per charge, around 8 or 9 hours, so on a 14-hour flight they'll be back in the case at some point.

It really comes down to how you fly. For short hops and weekend trips I'd grab earbuds, for long-hauls I'd lean over-ear, and if you sleep on your side, earbuds every time. Plenty of people who fly a lot just pack both. And if your trips are more subway than 747, my picks for the daily commute run lighter and cheaper.

My six picks for travel

A couple of travel extras worth packing

Two things come up over and over with people who fly a lot, and neither gets much airtime in headphone reviews.

The first is Twelve South's AirFly Pro, a little Bluetooth transmitter that plugs into the seatback jack and beams the movie audio to your wireless headphones. That way you're not leashed to the armrest by a cable for the whole flight. List price is about $55 and it's dipped to around $40 on sale this year, and there's a newer AirFly Pro 2 at about $60. If you're up in the air every month or so, I'd call it money well spent.

The second is a proper hard case if your headphones didn't come with one. The AirPods Max 2 is the big offender here. A hard case from Geekria or Waterfield runs somewhere around $20 to $60 and holds up a whole lot better at the bottom of a backpack. With earbuds, the case they ship in is usually fine.

How to pick the right pair for your trips

Find the line that sounds like you.

Questions people ask about travel headphones

Are $450 noise cancelling headphones worth it for flying?

If you fly more than a handful of times a year, I think so. The flagships knock back more of the cabin than the $100 to $200 crowd, and on a long-haul that means stepping off the plane a lot less frazzled. If you're only up there once or twice a year, the $130 Space 2 gets you most of the way, with SoundGuys measuring 84% against 89% for the AirPods Max 2. My guess is the line sits somewhere around flying every couple of months.

Can I use Bluetooth headphones with the seatback screen?

Mostly not on their own. Seatback systems usually put out sound through a regular headphone jack, so you've got three ways to go. You can plug in with a cable (the Sony comes with one, the Bose takes one, and Apple sells its own for $39). You can use a transmitter like the AirFly Pro that sits in the jack and sends the audio over to your headphones. Or you can use the airline's freebie earbuds for the movie and save your good pair for music off your phone. I'd go with the AirFly, it's the least hassle.

Does noise cancelling drain the battery faster on a plane?

A little. ANC always pulls some power, and I'd expect a long flight to shave a bit off the rated number, which is why I go by measured battery over what's printed on the box. SoundGuys' 27 hours for the Bose and 37 for the Sony both clear even the longest nonstop out there with room to spare.

How do I keep my ears from aching on a long flight?

Start with a pair that doesn't clamp hard, and the Bose is the one RTINGS and Tom's Guide rate comfiest. Pull them off for five or ten minutes every couple of hours so your ears can breathe. If you plan on sleeping, switch to earbuds for that stretch so there's no headband shoving into the headrest. That's a big part of why I'd pack both.

Will my headphones survive getting tossed around in a carry-on?

Not if they're rattling around loose. The mics, drivers and hinges in a flagship pair are fiddly and pricey to fix, so I'd keep them in the hard case every time. Earbuds in their charging case hold up fine. The AirPods Max 2 is the one to worry about, the Smart Case leaves the headband bare, so I'd buy it a hard case on day one.

Can I wear Bluetooth headphones during takeoff and landing?

In the US, generally yes, as long as your phone's in airplane mode and your airline allows it. The FAA opened up gate-to-gate use of personal electronics back in 2013, and short-range Bluetooth was part of that. Some carriers and a few foreign airports set their own rules, so if the crew asks you to take them off, do it. Phone calls are still off the table.

Why isn't the Sennheiser Momentum 4 on the list?

I went back and forth on it. It's down to about $200, there's an airplane adapter in the box, and SoundGuys got a whopping 56 hours out of it. The sticking point is the cancelling, which measured around 76%, behind even the $130 Space 2. The newer Momentum 5 is rated for 57 hours at $399.95, but there isn't much review data on it yet, so I'm sitting on my hands for now.

My bottom line

For most people who fly a lot, the Bose QuietComfort Ultra (2nd Gen) is the pair I'd pack, mostly for how it feels in hour nine. If you want the longest battery and a touch more quiet, the Sony WH-1000XM6 is right there with it, and earbud people should go straight to the Sony WF-1000XM6. For a trip or two a year, the Soundcore Space 2 gets it done for $130.

Whichever way you go, toss an AirFly Pro in the bag with them. It's a $55 plug that cuts you loose from the armrest cable. And Black Friday falls on November 27, well ahead of the December travel crush, so that's the week I'd be shopping.