'She grabbed a spoon and started filling the conditioner': Traveller praises Certis staff at Changi Airport T4 for act of kindness

In times of stress, a helping hand is always appreciated.

One woman's initial panic and frustration at Changi Airport's T4 security checkpoint turned into an unexpectedly heartwarming experience when she was met with kindness by a Certis officer.

Yasmine Khater wrote in a post on LinkedIn Friday (Jan 6) about how she was stopped by security personnel while passing through checks at Changi T4 terminal in mid-December.

The 37-year-old Singaporean CEO of a sales consultancy described how she'd forgotten to check in her bag of toiletries for the trip.

"I am at the security check with a big bag of toiletries in my hand that I forgot to check in. The Certis staff says. "M'am, we have to throw this away, the bottles are over 100ml'."

Khater retorted that they were "nearly empty", before realising that it's not about the contents but the size of the container.

"I forgot it was not about the amount in the bottle. It's the bottle size," she wrote of her faux pas.

She then requested to keep just her conditioner, to no avail.

"I thought I could negotiate my way, but regulations are regulations," noted Khater.

What happened next, however, took her by surprise.

A Certis officer, identified in the post as Li Fang, told Khater that she could head over to the nearby pharmacy in the departure terminal to buy empty travel-sized bottles as she still had time.

Khater, grateful for the tip, did just that.

Not only that, Li — armed with a plastic spoon — even jumped in later to help Khater transfer the contents of the bottles.

"While I was filling the shampoo, she grabbed a spoon and started filling the conditioner. We laughed together at this situation and if the airport was busier I would suffer alone," Khater wrote.

Speaking to AsiaOne, Khater shared that when she was first stopped, her heart dropped.

"My first emotion was "oh s***," she shared candidly.'

But Li's solution for her to buy some travel-sized bottles soon put a smile on Khater's face. 

"I think I was just delighted, to be honest. I was delighted because I just didn’t know another option."

"Even though I've travelled a lot, sometimes there's human error because we're human beings and that compassion is just really beautiful," added Khater, a trained psychologist.

The incident was a point for reflection as well, with Khater admitting that in the past, she might have "let it out" on others because she was reluctant to admit that she was in the wrong, or if she was "stressed out".

"The rules are clear — if I forgot, that's on me, and I really feel sad for the moments I didn't acknowledge that," said Khater, sharing with AsiaOne that frontline service staff often bear the brunt of customers' frustrations.

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In her post, Khater shared a quote by the late American poet and civil rights activist Maya Angelou, citing how having compassion for another human being makes all the difference.

"I've learned that people will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel," quoted Khater, thanking Li for the "wonderful experience".

In the comments to the post — which was acknowledged by both Changi Airport Group and Certis — many were just as heartened by Li's kind act.

"I can't decide which is more impressive, the empathy or the fact that there was a spoon within reach," one commenter wrote, to which Khater replied that the spoon was brought in for the specific purpose by Li's colleague.

"One of her (Li's) colleagues actually brought one to help customers and they passed it around," shared Khater.

In another comment which praised Certis staff for the initiative, Khater added: "100 per cent it was really a team effort and that's the beauty of it."

candicecai@asiaone.com

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