The ad in SC for the noise cancelling headphones reminded me about a question I've been asking for a while.

Six of us are off on holiday later this. 4 adults and 2 kids. Three of the party have not flown before and we have an 8 hour flight (in the back seats) with Virgin. As we don't travel very often, I was wondering about whether buying some noise cancelling headphones for some/all of the party might be a good idea to make the flights each way a bit more bearable?

I'm not a frequent flyer myself and, to be honest, I'd probably just put up with the noise myself. What do you reckon? Six pairs of headphones for one trip a year (at most) seems a bit excessive. Perhaps we should buy a few pairs to share? Are there any cheaper options that you could recommend?