5 years ago, I got a pair of Sennheiser over-the-ear noise-cancelling headphones for long flights after realizing how loud I had the volume turned up on earbuds. I'm happy enough with them, but they're too plasticy for the price and rather bulky for traveling (so I'm considering Airpods Pro), but on a flight, noise canceling is absolutely not a gimmick.
I wouldn't give up on Sennheiser without looking at their new offerings just quite yet. I just bought a noise cancelling over the ear pair from them (after returning my XM4s) and their build quality is excellent - metal, leather, high quality plastic.
Just an FYI here for those unaware, but Sennheiser recently sold off their consumer headphone division [0], so the future of Senn's great headphones is very much a mystery at the moment
