I have Sony over ears and airpods pro and I never wear airpods on flights. Far too uncomfortable for long ones and noise cancelling is far better on over ears, by design. Of course airpods are more versatile if that's what you after tho.
I have both the Sony over the ear noise canceling headphones and AirPods Pro.
I haven’t brought the Sonys on a flight since I got the AirPods. The Sonys do a marginally better job, but they take up so much more space in your carryon that the small advantage isn’t worth it.
Comfort is more subjective. Over the ear headphones start to hurt my head after a couple hours. Earbuds don’t bother me much in comparison.
It’s something that gives me pause about these VR headsets for longer durations. If I don’t even like wearing the relatively light over the ear Sonys, hard for to imagine myself being all that comfortable wearing a whole screen on my face.
I have both and prefer the AirPods Pro. The Bose noise cancelling always felt a bit unnatural; there was a pressure difference that would make me feel slightly dizzy. For me, the AirPods Pro do not cause the same dizzyness issue and have comparable noise cancelling. Even if they had noticeably worse noise cancelling the charging and pairing experience are so much better than what Bose can achieve that I'd probably still use the AirPods.
Two years ago they were better than the best in-ear noise cancelling earphones Bose had. I've not kept up to date or tried Bose since then so maybe they've got even better (they weren't bad, just not as good as Airpods Pro, IMO).
