In January last year, Ms Rozidah Mohd Yasin was manning Changi Airport's Singapore Airlines ticketing counter when a lost and anxious Malaysian couple approached her.
They had just set up a travel agency and were struggling to buy 27 tickets for their first customers.
Ms Rozidah was so helpful that after they hit their limit here, she drove them to banks in Johor Baru a few days later to help them withdraw money to buy the tickets.
Yesterday, Changi Airport Group (CAG) honoured the 49-year-old Sats customer service agent at its Annual Airport Celebration 2017 with its highest accolade - Service Personality of the Year.
CAG went through 50,000 airport staff members from more than 200 companies, eventually picking 24 winners across five categories.
On her latest win, Ms Rozidah, who has clinched four awards from CAG in her 28 years of service, told The Straits Times: "I'm ecstatic."
She insisted she had just been doing her job. "It's just the right feeling. You don't do something because you want to win an award," said Ms Rozidah, whose motto is "In the name of sincerity and consistency".
The awards were presented by Coordinating Minister for Infrastructure and Minister for Transport Khaw Boon Wan and CAG chief executive officer Lee Seow Hiang at an event held yesterday at The Ritz-Carlton, Millennia Singapore.
Mr Lee said that in the cases of many award recipients, "these service heroes have taken the passenger's problem as their very own and stepped up to turn a difficult situation into a positively memorable one".
He also praised Changi Airport's record annual passenger volume of 58.7 million and its score of 4.987 out of 5 in the Airports Council International's Airport Service Quality survey.
But the evening's loudest cheers were reserved for Ms Rozidah when she collected her prize. Waiting in the audience was the couple she had helped, who had travelled from Malaysia to surprise her.
Mr Muhammad Farhan Mohammad Hasnan, 27, said that he felt very happy as he watched the video about Ms Rozidah's actions.
"I was about to cry," he said, recalling what she did for him.
His wife, Madam Nurzahidah Na'eme, 25, said that Ms Rozidah's advice also helped them save 30 per cent on costs.
The couple were so grateful that they invited Ms Rozidah to their wedding in Penang last September.
She was unable to attend but has stayed in touch and speaks to them once a week.
Correction note: In the original version of this story, it was stated that CAG chairman Liew Mun Leong was one of the presenters of the awards. This is incorrect. The awards were presented by Coordinating Minister for Infrastructure and Minister for Transport Khaw Boon Wan and CAG chief executive officer Lee Seow Hiang. We are sorry for the error.
