I agree, although I find that the on ear and over ear headsets aren't always the best options, although I've only used the Bose ones. Typically problems have included feedback squeals, the padding disintegrating into black bits over your face, and just being hard to drift off while wearing them. They're also very bulky compared to in ear options.

In recent years I have trained myself to become comfortable with the in-ear units, in particular the QC20(i) and QC30. It takes a while to become used to them from a comfort perspective, but they work really well from a noise cancelling perspective. I'm on my fourth set of QC20s. The QC20s I've yet to have them run out of juice on a longhaul flight, but unlike the QC30s you are slightly hampered by the cable. A nice feature of the QC20 is that it works as a normal passive headset when it runs out of juice.

One word of warning about both the QC20 and QC30 is that they are both fragile, and glue is so key in their fabrication that attempting to fix them is almost always a destructive enterprise. The QC30 suffers from a problem where the flat flex cable running through (and glued into) the neck is tight on the connectors, so it fails after time. You also look like a vicar when you where the QC30 if that's what floats your boat.

The QC20 is being offered at a significantly reduced price compared to a year or two ago, I assume because everyone's moving to Bluetooth.I wouldn't normally recommend these insurance policies, but because of their fragility, invest in a no quibble instant replacement warranty for a few quid at point of purchase, and take a picture of the policy with your phone saving it in a safe place.

Failure modes of the QC20 justifying an extended warranty include inadvertently yanking and breaking the 3.5mm plug, rolling over a bud with an office chair, and bud falling out of your ear into a choice plumbing receptacle. Hence, I'm on #4.