By the way the flight is 13 hrs 30 minutes if that’s what you consider long

1) Some people don’t like in ears
2) Some people don’t like eearphones
3) headphones generally more durable
4) they don’t get lost as easily
5) different sound experience
6) can leave them around your neck when not in use
7) easily tell others that you are using headphones and perhaps don’t want to be disturbed or reverse, allow people to know you’re not snubbing them and can’t hear them
Scorpion from mortal kombar recommends to “get over ‘ear” :p
9) Fashion item. It becomes part of people’s outfits now :S

lol, many reasons for over ear headphones.

Cons:

- not discrete
- difficult to use lying down
- difficult to use when running
- hard to carry
- too obvious (some people don’t want others to know they’re using earphones
- often poorer sound isolation
- requires louder volume
- can cause ear pain (compression/overheating…though in ears may also do this to an extent)
- sound leak can be very annoying to people around you and generally worse that ear/in ear.

I don’t think it has anything to do with money or showing off your stuff, no question on ear headphones are better than in ear.