Earlier last week, Srilankan Airlines announced that will be serving Melbourne from late October. The carrier will be using their A330-200 for the 10-hour flight from their home airport of Colombo. As the airline is part of Oneworld, there are quite a few options for redeeming points on the new service.

It’s also worth pointing out that in quite a few cases, it’s better value to buy a Business Class fare out of Colombo as the fares out of there are generally pretty fantastic. As for departing Melbourne, you’ll get much better value when you’re using your points.

SriLankan Airlines A330-200 

If you want to redeem for the flights, you’ll first have to find availability and luckily it’s pretty easy and there are quite a few ways to find space. The easiest way to find space online is either through British Airways, Qantas and Expertflyer. For American Airlines, you’ll have to ring and the agent will be able to find space. When searching through Expertflyer, you’ll want to find ‘U’ space for Business and ‘X’ space for Economy.

Here are the rates and best points to use for the flights: (All are one-way)

• American Airlines AAdvantage points – 40,000 points for Business & 30,000 for Economy 
• Qantas Frequent Flyer points – 78,000 points for Business & 42,000 for Economy 
• British Airways Avios – For some reason, I kept getting an error even searching for the Business Class rates but for Economy, it’s 25,000 Avios.

If you were wondering about the prices for the flight, on a random date in November, the flight from Colombo to Melbourne in Business Class is $1306 AUD which is $987 USD. If you were to do Melbourne – Colombo, the price comes out to $2557 AUD…

Overall, redeeming points for the flight over to Colombo represents good value but the same can’t be said for the return leg. If you were wanting to do the flight, I’d redeem over and pay back and credit the points and miles to the program of your choosing.