Holiday travel is loud. Airports, crowded cabins, crying kids three rows back — it adds up fast. A decent pair of over-ear headphones can make all the difference, and right now Bose’s QuietComfort Headphones are on Amazon for $169.99, which is $180 off the usual price. That works out to a 50 percent reduction from MSRP, and it beats their previous low of $199.99.
The QC Headphones sit at the heart of Bose’s audio lineup, which stretches from the premium QC Ultra Headphones and QC Ultra Earbuds down to more entry-level options. Compared to the QuietComfort 45, they keep that same lightweight feel while holding onto Bose’s well-regarded noise cancellation — the kind that makes a snoring seatmate genuinely irrelevant.
There’s a simple toggle between full sound isolation and ambient awareness, which is handy when you need to catch a gate announcement without yanking the headphones off. They connect to two devices at once, and the 24 hours of battery life is enough to get through a long travel day without hunting for a free outlet. When you land, they fold flat and tuck away without much fuss.
We haven’t reviewed this particular model ourselves, but Bose headphones have a solid track record for comfort and active noise cancellation. If you want the top of the range, the QC Ultra Headphones are worth a look — the first-generation model is currently on Amazon for $298, down $131, which is the lowest we’ve seen in a while. They add immersive spatial audio, ear-specific tuning for both audio and noise cancellation, and sensors that pause or resume your music automatically when you take the headphones on or off.
Either way, a bit of quiet goes a long way when you’re travelling through the holiday chaos.
