American Express has added The Leading Hotels of the World Leaders Club (LHW) as a transfer partner. You can now transfer Membership Rewards to LHW at a rate of 1,000 Membership Rewards to 250 Leaders Club points (4:1). Normally when we see a transfer rate that isn’t 1:1 it’s bad news but these points are significantly more valuable than other transfer partners. Citi also transfers to LHW but at a rate of 5:1 (added in October 2023), although we often see 25% transfer bonuses bringing it to 4:1.
Leading Hotels of the World has over 400 properties worldwide. Points are normally worth ~8¢ each, meaning you get 2¢ per point in value when transferring. Free nights start at 4,000 Leaders Club points (16,000 Membership Rewards points). They also have a lot of unique luxury properties that you don’t see with other chains. Hopefully we also see American Express drop some transfer bonuses with LHW, but that is unlikely as the base rate is so much better than Citi.
