About the LHG Loyalty Eco-System
I’m a big fan of boutique hotel groups like the “Leading Hotel Groups” of the World and I’m personally a Platinum Elite Member, thanks to my AmEx Platinum membership.
How does the LHG Loyalty Program compare?
Most points collectors know the big chains: Marriott, Hilton, Hyatt, IHG. Fewer pay attention to The Leading Hotels of the World (LHW), and that has been a mistake for a while. In 2026 it became a much bigger one.
LHW isn’t a hotel chain. It’s a collection of more than 400 independently owned luxury hotels in 80-plus countries , and it keeps growing. Six new member hotels were announced as recently as late October 2026. These are hotels like the Ritz Paris, Adare Manor, Beau-Rivage Palace Lausanne and The Landmark London. Many of them appear in American Express’s own LHW listings.
The question I get asked is simple: can I use my credit card points there, and what else connects to it? Here’s the full picture.
Loyalty Program Partners for LHG
| Program | Connection to LHW | Ratio |
|---|---|---|
| American Express Membership Rewards (U.S.) | Points transfer to Leaders Club | 4:1 (1,000 MR = 250 Leaders Club points) |
| Amex Platinum / Business Platinum | Free Leaders Club Sterling status | Enrollment required |
| Citi ThankYou (Strata Elite, Strata Premier, Prestige, AT&T Access More) | Points transfer to Leaders Club | 5:1 (1,000 TY = 200) |
| Citi ThankYou (Strata, Double Cash, Custom Cash, other cards) | Points transfer to Leaders Club | 1,000 TY = 140 |
| SIXT | Car rental status match | Gold for Club, Platinum for Sterling |
| Chase, Capital One, Bilt | No transfer partnership | — |
| Airlines | No airline earn or transfer partnership | — |
First, Understand Leaders Club
Leaders Club is LHW’s loyalty program. It’s free to join. It used to be a paid membership costing around $170 a year, and that fee is gone.
What makes it unusual is that you get the good benefits at the entry level. You don’t have to grind for status first. Club members get daily continental breakfast for two, upgrade priority on arrival, early check-in and late check-out consideration, free Wi-Fi, and a pre-arrival upgrade once they’ve completed a paid stay.
Earning: You earn 1 point per US dollar spent on the room rate, on up to three rooms per stay. The booking has to go through LHW.com, LHW’s reservation centers, or a qualifying travel professional. Food, spa and other spending on the property doesn’t earn points.
Redeeming: Award nights start at about 4,000 to 4,500 points, depending on the hotel and the season. Pricing is dynamic, and Leaders Club points tend to be worth about 8 cents each.
Tiers:
-
Club: free, with benefits starting from your first stay.
-
Sterling: $5,000 of qualifying room spend in a calendar year. It adds five pre-arrival upgrades a year and a 5% points bonus on each stay.
-
Aurelian: invitation-only, aimed at the top-spending guests.
Once you understand that 8-cent point value, the transfer ratios make sense.
American Express: The Strongest Connection
Amex now has two separate links to LHW.
Membership Rewards Transfers (New in 2026)
On July 28, 2026, American Express added Leaders Club as a Membership Rewards transfer partner. The ratio is 4:1, so 1,000 MR points become 250 Leaders Club points, and the minimum transfer is 1,000 MR . The transfer is for U.S. cardholders only. Transfers can take up to 72 hours
A 4:1 ratio looks bad at first glance. Do the math, though: 250 Leaders Club points at about 8 cents each is roughly $20 of hotel value for 1,000 MR points, or about 2 cents per Amex point. The Points Guy has described it as possibly the single best use of Amex points for hotel stays.
Here are some real examples from Daily Drop :
-
Imperial Hotel Tokyo: 4,238 Leaders Club points a night, about 17,000 MR
-
Country Club Lima Hotel: 3,368 Leaders Club points, about 13,500 MR
-
Fauchon L’Hôtel Paris: 10,370 Leaders Club points, about 41,500 MR
The catch: award stays don’t cover taxes and fees. You pay those in cash.
Cards that earn transferable MR: the Platinum Card, Business Platinum, Gold Card, Green Card, Business Gold and other cards that earn Membership Rewards.
Free Sterling Status with Platinum
U.S. Consumer and Business Platinum cardholders, including additional cardmembers, can get complimentary Leaders Club Sterling status. You have to enroll, and the email on your Leaders Club account has to match the one on your Amex account. Enrollment can take up to 72 hours. This perk launched in September 2025 as part of the Platinum refresh.
It’s worth being honest about how much this is worth. Base Club membership already includes breakfast and upgrade priority, so Sterling mainly adds the five pre-arrival upgrades, the 5% points bonus and SIXT Platinum status. It’s nice to have, but it won’t change the trip.
Fine Hotels + Resorts vs. Leaders Club
Many LHW hotels can also be booked through Amex Fine Hotels + Resorts and The Hotel Collection. You can’t stack the two, though. Leaders Club Sterling benefits and FHR benefits don’t combine on the same booking. Leaders Club benefits generally apply only to eligible rates booked through LHW. Compare both options for each stay.
Citi ThankYou: The Original Partner
Citi added LHW as a transfer partner in 2023. The ratio depends on your card:
-
Premium cards (Citi Strata Elite, Citi Strata Premier, and the closed Prestige and AT&T Access More): 1,000 ThankYou points = 200 Leaders Club points (5:1)
-
Other Thank You cards (Citi Strata, Double Cash, Custom Cash and others): 1,000 = 140
Transfers are instant). The names on both accounts must match, and transfers go in 1,000-point increments .
On premium cards, that works out to about 1.6 cents per Citi point. That’s lower than Amex’s 2 cents, but still solid.
Watch for bonuses. Citi has run 25% transfer bonuses to Leaders Club, one through May 16, 2026 and another through September 19, 2026. During those promos the premium ratio improves to 4:1, the same as Amex.
Chase, Capital One and Bilt: No Direct Link
As of this writing, only Amex and Citi transfer to Leaders Club (. Chase Ultimate Rewards, Capital One Miles and Bilt Rewards don’t transfer there. If you only hold those currencies, your options are paying cash through LHW to earn Leaders Club points, or booking LHW properties through your bank’s own travel portal. Portal bookings generally won’t earn Leaders Club points or Leaders Club benefits.
Airlines: There Isn’t an Airline Partnership
This is the question I get asked most, so here’s the plain answer. LHW’s own benefits page doesn’t list any airline partner. You can’t earn airline miles on Leaders Club stays, and you can’t move Leaders Club points into an airline program or the other way around.
There’s an indirect link, though. Amex MR and Citi ThankYou also transfer to many airline programs. If you collect those points, you can decide later whether a given batch goes to flights or to LHW stays.
Other Hotel Programs
There’s no reciprocal partnership between LHW and another hotel loyalty program. You can’t link Leaders Club with Marriott Bonvoy, Hilton Honors, World of Hyatt or I Prefer. LHW is its own independent collection. The main overlaps are on the card side, through Amex Fine Hotels + Resorts and The Hotel Collection, described above.
Car Rental: SIXT
SIXT is LHW’s transportation partner. It offers Leaders Club members a status match along with better rates and upgrades. Club members match to SIXT Gold, and Sterling members match to SIXT Platinum.
Buying Points Directly from Leaders Club
LHW sells Leaders Club points and runs regular bonus promotions. The most recent offered up to a 100% bonus and ended September 25, 2026. The bonus started at 50% on purchases of 2,000 points, and the full 100% applied from 30,000 points. Loyalty Lobby calculated that the full bonus works out to about 25% off paid rates. If you’re planning a stay anyway, it’s worth watching for the next sa
