Best airplane headphones

I have Audio-Technica ATH-ANC7s and love them for plane use.

You can get Sennheiser cx150s for $20 now... used to be 70.  They're iems though (not superb but excellent for the price / on the go needs).

If you were looking for actual headphones, I've used the akg k540s in the past, they're semi-open but don't bleed enough noise to bother people.  I don't own any other pairs that are really any good for plane use.  I tend to get higher imped. headphones and use in ear for on the go.

Sennheiser HD280 Pros (about $75.00-$85.00) have about as much passive noise isolation as you can get for a closed circumaural headphone, though they can clamp a little too tight for some, and sound little bass light for others.  I never had any comfort issues myself.  Works decently well without an amplifier, despite their slightly higher 64 Ohm impedance.

Pics because I can:

In the same situation but really don't wanna go the HD280 route.

Glad you like them! 

Maybe the AKG K81DJ ($50).

I think you're going to have to up the ante a bit. Noise canceling phones in the $100 price range aren't very good at noise canceling or making music and closed back phones help very little in eliminating outside noise, like jet engines. At the risk of being tared and feathered I'd suggesting Bose QC-2. Regardless of what people say about sound quality and price they do noise canceling better than anyone, and the sound quality isn't all that bad. Look on EBay, there's a bunch out there for bid and pair with a buy-it-now of $140.00 with shipping. I know that's more than you want to spend but you'll have phones that will work well. I've owned QC-2s for about 10 years and I wouldn't step on a plane without them.

The guy already picked up some anc7s and likes them. I too find them just fine for plane and train use.