My husband just ordered a pair of those noise-cancelling earphones from Bose. Has anyone travelled on overnight flights with them? It seems to me they are very big (and take up room in a carryon) and I wonder if they would be too uncomfortable. He plans to get one of those inflatable collars, too.

On the other hand, to cancel out the engine drone and the endless announcements might make me more rested when we get to Milan from SFO. Plus, you can plug in an i-pod and listen to your own music.

What's your experience?

Charnee

No one who has traveled with them has ever gone back to traveling without them.

The only debate (look up "headphones" rather than "earphones" is whether other brands give better value for the money than Bose.

I have never used them. I don't see the need; if I want to block out noise I just use the audio. But I often use one of those inflatable pillows if I am stuck in coach for a truly long flight. (Just did JFK-AMS with connection to CapeTown..talk about long!!) These do increase the comfort when you are seated. I was tempted to get one of the stuffed pillows which are more plush, but then you have to drag it around with you. So I think you are on the right track with the inflatable.

We just had a thread on that very recently, try searching for it. The Bose ones are fairly big, but I have them, and do not use the original case they came in. Those would protect them, but makes them even bigger. I just wrap one layer of bubble wrap around them and put them in a smaller and thinner tote I have, which also has my MP3 player and some spare batteries.

I don't take them on short flights because of their size, but I do on ones to Europe. If you've never used them, you might not understand how different they are from just sticking the regular audio ear plugs into your ears. I never enjoyed listening to music or the movie that much on planes because there was so much noise and these don't make things silent, but they are a world of difference.

They aren't uncomfortable at all, why would they be. I guess if you can't stand anything on your head, maybe you'd think they are, but they don't bother me at all. I did have a cheaper pair that did because it wasn't that comfortable nor as soft as the Bose (on the ears).

I, on the other hand, have never comprehended what those inflatable collars are supposed to do. I did try one once and really didn't understand it at all. So you have this thing around your neck, so what. It didn't do anything for me, and I still couldn't sleep because I was sitting. The reason I can't sleep on a plane is because I can't sleep sitting up and that doesn't change that fact.

It does not help you sleep, it supports your head so you are more comfortable in your miserable awake state.

There are several recent threads on the Fodorite Lounge on the same subject. Not just Bose, but also alternate noise-canceling and noise-isolating ones.

I don't necessarily use the noise cancelling headphones for sleeping (and even if I did, I don't sleep on planes, so it would be a waste), but we got some for our last long trip to Australia and they were great! The Bose ones do look rather big. We did some research in various consumer magazines and the ones that came up being as good as Bose, but quite a bit cheaper and smaller, were Sennheisers. They are fabulous! One of the articles talked about audio fatigue resulting from having to turn up the volume on those little earbuds too much to hear movies or music. With the noise cancelling headphones, you can keep the volume at a more tolerable level and listen for longer. Which in my case is good since on those long haul flights I usually watch at least 2-3 movies (plus read a book, plus walk around, plus eat, etc ! Like I said - I don't sleep even when the flight is 18 hours). I would highly recommend the Sennheisers to anyone considering getting a pair. They pack very nicely into their own little case and they are very light. The only downside with any of them is that you have to make sure to have batteries for the noise cancelling function.

Shure earphones are the best. Block out noise, as opposed to cancelling, but does a great job and much smaller.

thanks, everyone, for your replies. I did check on previous threads (why didn't I do that first?) so now I think I have a pretty good idea of what to do. I may go for something smaller, but first will try wearing the Bose headset for a while and see what I think.

Charnee

Travel + Leisure magazine (I think!) recently had an article on which noise-cancelling headphones they thought were best. They recommended the Bose QuietComfort-3 as their top pick, followed by the Bose QC-2, and then I think the Sennheisers.

Even before seeing the T+L article, I went out and plunked down close to $400 (incl. tax) for the Bose QC-3's. (Fortunately there is a Bose factory store near where I live, so I could test them out first!). The QC-3's rest on the ear but do not fully cover them like traditional earmuff headphones, which the QC-2's are. They are <i>amazing</i> in their noise-cancelling ability. I did not find them to be huge or bulky, but I did notice that I became more sensitive to changes in air (ear?) pressure with them on. Disclaimer: I had a cold at the time....

I can't sleep on a plane to save my life, so when I go to Lisbon in a couple of weeks, I'm not expecting to sleep any better with them on than with them off. I AM looking forward to the 90% engine and background noise reduction though. There is a considerable difference between the amount of background noise you hear with noise-cancelling headphones and without them.