Machine learning (ML)-based methods are widely explored to predict the quality of transmission (QoT) of a lightpath, which is expected to reduce optical signal to noise ratio (OSNR) margin reserved for the lightpath and therefore improve the spectrum efficiency of an optical network. However, many studies conducting this prediction are often based on synthetic datasets or datasets obtained from laboratory. As such, these datasets may not be amply representative to cover the entire status space of a real optical network, which is often exposed in harsh environment. There are risks of failure when using these ML-based QoT prediction models. It is necessary to develop a mechanism that can guarantee the reliability of a lightpath service even if the prediction models fail. For this, we propose to take advantage of the conventional network protection techniques that are popularly implemented in an optical network and reuse their protection resources to also protect against such a type of failure. Based on the two representative protection techniques, i.e., 1+1 dedicated path protection and shared backup path protection (SBPP), the performance of the proposed protection mechanism is evaluated by reserving different margins for the working and protection lightpaths. For 1+1 path protection, we find that the proposed mechanism can achieve a zero design-margin (D-margin) for a working lightpath thereby significantly improving network spectrum efficiency, while not scarifying the availability of lightpath services. For SBPP, we find that an optimal D-margin should be identified to balance the spectrum efficiency and service availability, and although not significant, the proposed mechanism can save an up to 0.5-dB D-margin for a working lightpath, while guaranteeing the service availability.