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Well my perspective is slightly different, but I do indeed have several worst flights ever.
I was relatively new as a flight attendant (Like 6-7 months on the job), and still learning the ropes. I was on Reserve which means I was on call 12 hours a day and had to be at the airport within an hour and a half if called out. They can work you up to 14 hours a day with only 8 hours rest in between. Basically you're their bitch. I had been worked a lot that month (I think it was July), and was pretty exhausted.
I worked some trip where I had a sit in LaGuardia before flying home to Columbus. I ate some Chinese food in LGA because it was the cheapest thing in the airport and that was the only time I had to eat that day. I got home and immediately collapsed in bed. I was on call again at 3 or 4 the next morning. They called at sometime in the morning and assigned me a trip with an afternoon show. I was so tired when they were giving me the trip assignment I didn't really pay attention, I just knew I had written down the showtime. I woke up a bit later feeling horrid and proceeded to be violently ill all morning. Evidently the Chinese in LGA had given me food poisoning. Somewhere in my daze I knew I had to go to work, and was scared to call them and tell them I was sick and couldn't work. I checked my showtime and the paper said 315. It was almost 1 so I dragged myself into the shower and started to get ready. I get out of the shower to find scheduling has called looking for me, evidently my showtime was really 1315, so 1:15, and I had not written down the 1!!!
I raced to the airport still feeling horrid. I got to the gate about 1/2 hour late, and boarded up immediately. I was doing a Newark turn flying as America West (god I miss them, they had the best group of people to work with). I puked three or four times on the way there, and then we started to descend. It was a stormy summer afternoon and the turbulence going in was awful. I seriously thought I was going to loose it sitting in my jumpseat. I had grabbed several sick sacks just in case. I guess I didn't have anything left in my stomach, because I managed to not puke again that flight.
We landed in EWR to discover that the weather was rapidly going to shit and we may not be able to leave. The airport insisted we board up the passengers and leave the gate because they needed the gate space for inbound aircraft. We taxi out and park in a line with seriously like 100 other planes. Every where you looked there were endless lines of planes parked in every direction. I tried to eat a bag of pretzels and puked again, so I gave up and just drank tiny sips of water. The Captain said it was going to be at least a three hour delay, so I had to give people food and drink while waiting. I could barely stand at this point and felt close to passing out. I went through the cabin once with the cart and then made an announcement something along the lines that if they wanted anything else to come help themselves in the galley. I sat in an empty seat near the front and told the pilots to call every half hour to make sure I wasn't dead. Luckily some nice passenger was a doctor and could clearly tell I wasn't well and kept on checking on me too. I spent the next 4 to 5 hours in and out on consciousness until we actually got to take off. By that time my galley had been cleaned out, so I couldn't have done a service on the actual flight even if I had wanted to! Everyone fell asleep, and I was actually starting to feel better.
Looking back I clearly wasn't safe to fly and had there been an emergency I would have been completely useless. At the time I was afraid they would fire me if I called in sick after being given an assignment. I learned that flying while stomach ill is never ever a good idea. Most important lesson learned? Never eat cheap Chinese airport food, especially from a buffet!! I never ate Chinese food in LGA again.
Next installment, the plane infested with mosquitoes....
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