Redeemed 1 pax o/way J fare Male-CMB-Melb, going to purchase other fare- is this the only solution

[zahra01]

Hello, I managed to redeem a Business class ticket on Sri Lankan for our return leg of Maldives holiday in April 2018. Male-Colombo-Melbourne.
The flight lines up perfectly. It cost me 78,000 points and about $85 tax. Very pleased. There was only 1 J seat award available.
My next plan was to book our other ticket directly with Sri Lankan Airlines. The J ticket oneway is approx. $1180 USD, so about $1560 AUD. I figure this is reasonable for a 9.5 hr overnight flight for the CMB-MEL sector.
Am I missing any other way to redeem a UL flight... ie there's no seats on the QF ff website...so is there a way to buy miles for some other program and try access seat that way... or is purchasing outright probably the way to go in this instance.
My other option I guess is to wait and see if J opens up, but I haven't had luck with UL for that in previous instances.. so would prefer a bird in the hand now or soon-ish.

 

[serfty]

How 'refundable' is the J ticket?

 

[zahra01]

How 'refundable' is the J ticket?

There is a $75 USD Refund/cancellation fee. I guess you are going to suggest I buy it and if a reward seats comes up in the QF program, I can always ditch this paid ticket and only lose $75 US.... I had just wondered if there was no other way I hadn't dreamt up yet...as I think the chances of a reward ticket via QF site coming up are slim !

 

[serfty]

Yes, you knew where I was coming from.

Everyone/circumstances can be different, but with a US$75, I'd book and keep looking.

 

[MEL_Traveller]

There is a $75 USD Refund/cancellation fee. I guess you are going to suggest I buy it and if a reward seats comes up in the QF program, I can always ditch this paid ticket and only lose $75 US.... I had just wondered if there was no other way I hadn't dreamt up yet...as I think the chances of a reward ticket via QF site coming up are slim !

It's UL who will be making the award available rather than QF. If it was QF I'd agree your chances may be slim, but with UL in control and depending on flight loads you may have more success (although I say that not really knowing how UL controls their inventory).