I have to say, I've been rather disappointed with the Audio-Technica 'phones. Just bought 'em a month ago and took them with me on flights to/from Germany, and found that:
- I can get MUCH more noise reduction via foam earplugs.
- When not turned on, the headphones are practically useless; music sounds like it's being transmitted to you via 17 tin cans.
- When turned on, the audio quality is good to very-good, not stellar, but not nearly as good as my Sennheiser HD 280 pro headphones which are more comfortable, seem to block out more noise (without noise cancellation), and $20 cheaper.

Upsides?
- They're still reasonably comfortable.
- GREAT carrying case! Fits really well in my carry-on backpack.
- It's neat how it has a removable cord, so if you just want 'em for noise cancellation, you can do that (but see note above about foam earplugs being superior).

In all, I'm sorry I bought them and kinda wish I'd been less lazy about returning them to Amazon (I think I'm over the 30 days now).

With this said, though, I haven't directly compared my Sennheiser and Audio-Technica phones in a loud environment, so maybe the latter actually are better on a plane when listening to music, not sure.