I was really skeptical about noise cancelling headphones, until I was at home a fortnight ago and my local Aldi had this German "medion" brand for 19.99. So cheap, I thought I'd give them a try.

A-Mazing. With the switch flicked, even without listening to the iPod, sooo much cabin noise was cut out, including people's loud conversations and even when the FA was asking me something. The only thing they couldn't quite deal with was a screaming (typical) kid behind me... but cut that racket down by about 50% so I was happy.