Key Points

• Emirates is rolling out complimentary iftar boxes, prayer mats, dedicated lounge offerings, and special in-flight content for the 2026 Ramadan season across all cabin classes.
• For points travelers, Ramadan is one of the best windows to experience Emirates' legendary hospitality at its most intentional, especially if you're holding Emirates Skywards miles or transferable points that reach the program.
• Award availability to Middle East destinations typically opens up during shoulder windows around Ramadan, making this a smart time to check award space with tools like Seats.Aero or Point.Me.

Ramadan 2026 begins around March 1, and Emirates is going all in on the passenger experience. The airline just announced its full slate of services for the Holy Month, and for points travelers planning redemptions through Dubai or onward to the Middle East, this is genuinely useful information.

Whether you're redeeming Emirates Skywards miles, transferring Amex Membership Rewards, or routing through DXB on a partner award, here's what to expect on the ground and in the air, plus what this season means for your booking strategy.

What Emirates Is Actually Doing for Ramadan 2026

Iftar Boxes at the Gate and Onboard

Emirates is providing complimentary iftar boxes at select Dubai boarding gates timed to sunset. The boxes contain water, laban, dates, and a banana. It's a small touch, but if you're fasting and connecting through DXB, it matters.

Onboard, all cabin classes on select routes will receive Ramadan meal boxes served in addition to the regular hot meal service. The boxes include traditional dates, hummus, moutabel or muhammara with Arabic bread, a chicken mossakan or herbed chicken sandwich, chocolate almonds, baklawa, and laban. The packaging itself is designed around traditional Islamic geometric art.

One technical detail worth knowing: Emirates uses a proprietary tool to calculate iftar and imsak timings based on the aircraft's real-time longitude, latitude, and altitude. The captain will announce iftar time onboard. That's a meaningful level of operational care that most airlines don't come close to offering.

Prayer mats are available on all flights by request from the cabin crew.

Emirates Lounge Experience in Dubai

If you're flying First or Business Class and holding lounge access at Dubai International Airport, Ramadan brings a distinct upgrade to the food offerings. All seven Emirates Lounges at DXB will serve Arabic sweets, dates, and coffee throughout the Holy Month.

First and Business Class lounges specifically will feature full Ramadan menus: lentil soup, Arabic mixed grill with tahina, lamb kabsa, chicken machboos, lamb shanks ouzi with hashweh rice and dakous, plus desserts including pistachio kunafa, kathayef cream, basbousa saffron, and homemade Arabic coffee and dates ice cream.

Emirates Lounges in Cairo and Jeddah will also serve Ramadan dishes, which matters if you're transiting those cities. All Emirates Lounges have dedicated prayer rooms and ablution facilities. If you don't already have standalone lounge access through Priority Pass, Emirates First and Business redemptions are one of the cleanest ways to access the DXB lounges directly.

In-Flight Entertainment on ice

Emirates is adding a dedicated block of Ramadan content to its ice system for the duration of the Holy Month. Arabic-language religious programming includes Kheir Qodwa, Qalb Al Mo'men, Wa Yatoub Allah Alaykom, Al Huqooq Al Sharaeya, and Nafhat. Urdu-language content includes Ramadan Mah e Rehmat and Hoshyarian. The Holy Qur'an is available directly on ice.

For context, Emirates ice already offers over 6,500 channels of on-demand content, including 450 channels of Arabic-language movies and TV and 400 channels of Arabic music and podcasts. The Ramadan additions layer on top of that.

Umrah Travelers Get Extra Perks

If your redemption routes through Jeddah or Medina during the Holy Month, there's a practical perk worth noting. Passengers on Umrah group travel will receive Ramadan boxes in-flight and are entitled to check in one bottle of ZAMZAM holy water up to 5 liters per person at DXB and select Saudi airports. This is a detail that will genuinely matter for a large share of passengers flying those routes right now.

What This Means for Your Points Strategy

Ramadan Is Peak Season for Middle East Flights

If you're planning a redemption to the UAE, Saudi Arabia, Jordan, or surrounding destinations, Ramadan is not a slow travel period. Demand from the Muslim world spikes significantly, which can compress award availability on peak dates. Book early if your travel falls during the first or last week of the month.

That said, the days immediately before Ramadan and the post-Eid window can offer solid award availability. Use Seats.Aero or Point.Me to monitor Emirates Skywards space as well as partner programs that can book onto Emirates metal. Both tools surface premium cabin inventory across multiple programs simultaneously, which saves you from checking each airline one by one.

How to Get onto Emirates With Your Points

Emirates Skywards is a transfer partner for both American Express Membership Rewards and Marriott Bonvoy, which gives you two strong earning paths to get there.

The Amex route is the most direct. You can move Amex Membership Rewards to Emirates Skywards at a 1:1 ratio, making cards like The Platinum Card from American Express especially valuable for anyone targeting Emirates First or Business Class. The Platinum earns 5x points on flights booked directly with airlines, so you're stacking toward a redemption every time you fly. If you want to understand what those Amex points are actually worth before you transfer, our guide on how to transfer Amex points to airlines and hotels covers the full process and current sweet spots.

The Alaska angle is worth knowing about too. Alaska Mileage Plan has historically offered competitive redemption rates on Emirates metal, and Alaska miles are earned through a different set of partners, giving you another path if your Amex balance isn't quite there yet. It's always worth comparing programs side by side before you commit miles you can't get back. Roame Travel is one of the better tools for doing exactly that, pulling available award space across programs in a single search.

For Marriott Bonvoy holders, you can convert Bonvoy points to Skywards miles at a 3:1 ratio, with a 5,000-mile bonus for every 60,000 points transferred. It's not the sharpest conversion in the Bonvoy ecosystem, but it's a viable route if you're sitting on a large Bonvoy balance and have a specific Emirates redemption in mind.

The Business and First Class Lounge Is What You're Really Buying

If you're redeeming for Business or First Class on Emirates, the lounge experience at Dubai International is a significant part of the value proposition. During Ramadan, that experience is arguably at its richest, with the full mezze and dessert spread described above. For travelers who've never experienced the Emirates First Class lounge at DXB, it's genuinely worth building a trip around.

To find the award availability to make that happen, Seats.Aero remains the most reliable tool for real-time premium cabin inventory, and Point.Me is useful for comparing which of your existing points currencies can actually book the seats you're seeing.

The Bottom Line

Emirates' Ramadan preparations aren't a PR exercise. The attention to iftar timing, dedicated prayer spaces, and curated food across every cabin class reflects genuine operational investment in the passenger experience. For points travelers, the practical takeaway is straightforward: if you're routing through Dubai or traveling to the Middle East during the Holy Month, you'll be exceptionally well taken care of on Emirates.

Check award availability early, know your Amex transfer options, and consider whether the lounge experience at DXB makes a Business or First Class redemption worth the extra miles. Right now, it does.

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