Recently I faced the prospect of a long trans-oceanic flight and wanted some compact (preferably earbud-style) headphones with reasonable sound quality and, if possible, some decent noise-cancellation capability. Like all well-prepared travelers, I waited until I'd passed the security checkpoint, and rushed into an airport shop with no more than five minutes to make my choice. I quickly told the salesman what I was looking for, and he steered me towards this model from Audio-Technica. I'd heard the brand name, but had never bought one of their products. I asked him to compare the performance of these to those of Sony and another brand in the shop. (Both were earbuds, with noise-cancellation, at about the same price.) He insisted these performed better with regards both to sound quality and to noise cancellation.
Several thousand miles of ambient aircraft noise later, I can say I'm pleased with the choice. I've tried the noise-canceling phones from Bose (phenomenal, but pricey). These don't perform as well, particularly with regards to noise reduction, but they do a decent job. I couldn't hear a seat-mate speaking directly to me while I was watching "Sherlock Holmes" on the in-flight movie. Sound quality is good, though not great, as well. All said, these 'phones probably give about two-thirds the performance of the Bose model at less than a third the price. Not a bad deal at all. A seat-mate during one leg tried these, and was impressed with the noise cancellation. He later borrowed these headphones for his own use when I wasn't using them.
Conclusion? Wait until you're about to board the aircraft before buying headphones for your trip, and then ask the skinny guy with the wispy mustache for a recommendation. It just might work.