I am pretty experienced when it comes to low priced long distance air travel. It’s a pain. But I have some advice:
1. Always bring one small bottle of high quality chili sauce. Tabasco will do. Does wonders on the tasteless food on board the plane. And some trivia: the heat of chili is measured on the scoville scale. And the Bhut Jolokia was recently certified as the hottest of them all.
2. Invest in some high quality noise canceling headphones. I am using something like this. But there are lots of them.
Image:
Canon EOS400D, Canon EFS 17-55 2.8 @ 55mm
f/7.1, shutter speed 1/400, RAW
eirikso 
My favourite.
You have the QC3?
Yes. Fantastic sound. Pleasant to wear. Impressive battery life. Cheaper in the US…
But are you allowed to bring the chili sauce anymore? With the new security rules you are probably not allowed to open liquids you bring with you anymore?
You are allowed to bring liquids in containers that are less than 100ml. Bring it in a separate plastic bag along with your toothpaste and the other dangerous stuff in your hand lugguage.
If you need more than 100ml Tabasco switch to a Habanero sauce, or the explosive Bhut Jolokia. Wouldn’t need more than some drops of those. š
Could you provide us with some comments on the performance & quality of the Sony NC headset? Going to buy a Sony or a Bose soon.
I don’t have much to compare them to. They’re the only noise canceling headphones I’ve owned.
Quick roundup:
Design:
They’re the only ear bud type headphones I have owned that I can use for several hours without any strain on my ears. They also work quite effectively in terms of blocking noise simply by putting them in your ears.
This design also makes them small and easy to fit in your luggage.
Quality:
As mentioned, I don’t have much to compare them to. The plain sound quality is very good for a pair of ear buds. The noise canceling eliminates a fair amount of noise on board a plane, train or bus. The trade off is a bit of white noise generated by the electronics in the noise canceling circuit. As far as I know this white noise problem is a known one for other headphones of this type as well.
If money was no issue I think I would have bought the Bose QC3. They didn’t exist when I bought my sony headphones 9 years ago…
You find a review of many of the available ones here:
http://reviews.cnet.com/4520-3000_7-1017728-1.html