Flying Turkish Airlines from Brussels to Africa

Turkish Airlines is rapidly expanding its African network. Until recently, there were only 2 options for flying from Brussels to several West African capitals not covered by Brussels Airlines: either Air France or Royal Air Maroc.

Last time I flew Air France to Africa, my flight departure from Paris CDG was delayed by 6 hours because of a strike. Also, it is a real pain to carry one's baggage from Brussels Midi Station all the way to the check-in counters at CDG airport. Royal Air Maroc, while much cheaper than Air France, had inconvenient flight times with long stopovers at Casablanca airport.

The last time I flew Turkish Airlines in 2004 I was not impressed at all. Since then they've been winning some Skytrax awards and they have launched several well publicized marketing campaigns.  Turkish Airlines began direct flights to Niamey, Niger in December 2012 and I decided to try them again for a flight this February.

Here's the full report:

Brussels Airlines lounge at Brussels Airport
Brussels-Istanbul flights return
Istanbul-Niamey flights return
Turkish Airlines CIP lounge at Istanbul airport
TourIstanbul complimentary Istanbul tour between connecting flights

The pros of flying to West Africa with TK in a nutshell:

• Significant price difference (in my case 1,500 EUR cheaper than Air France)
• Excellent lounge at Istanbul airport
• Pretty good food
• Check-in of luggage directly at Brussels Airport
• One gets to avoid Air France and/or Paris Charles de Gaulle airport. In other words, no savage strikes!
• Their modern fleet except * below

And the cons:

• Service level of Turkish Airlines crew - most were unsympathetic and service was inconsistent. Some were obviously uncomfortable speaking English. They seriously need to improve recruitment and training standards!
• Flying eastwards to Istanbul then backtracking to West Africa does add some extra hours to one's journey
• Mentality - before take-off Turkish "friends" of the crew get upgraded to business class, while some hopeful others were trying to become "friends". The airline has obviously grown too fast without an accompanying cultural change
• The seats on the African flights do not become flat enough for such flight durations
• On-board beverage selection, especially on the Africa flights. And there are much better welcome drinks than super sweet lemonades and strawberry flavored syrups...
• Having to use Brussels Airlines' lounge in Brussels
• TourIstanbul - this should have been above among the advantages, but turned out to be a waste of my time
• No miles were credited and since the Miles& More web site did not recognize NIM among the airports, I had to send several e-mails and mail all by boarding passes and tickets to Germany. UPDATE April 2013: finally received the miles after 1,5 month
• * The dirty and old aircraft on my flight back to Brussels