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This is Amex's 20th travel transfer partner and as we’ll show, this is good news for cardholders.
American Express has quietly added Leading Hotels of the World’s (LHW) Leaders Club to its Membership Rewards program, and this makes Amex the second major US credit card rewards currency to partner with LHW.
This is Amex’s 20th travel transfer partner and as we’ll show, this is good news for cardholders.
The ratio
As of today, holders of Membership Rewards points in the US can now transfer their points across to the Leading Hotels of the World’s Leaders Club in a ratio of 1,000:250. Transfers are in minimum increments of 1,000 Amex points and, as usual, you will need to link your Amex and LHW accounts before you can enact a transfer.
Amex and LHW already have a partnership
If a partnership between Amex and Leading Hotels of the World feels familiar, that’s because the two have had a partnership since last year.
Back in September 2025, LHW gave U.S. Consumer and Business Platinum Card® holders complimentary Leaders Club Sterling status, without the usual spend requirement. That benefit comes with up to five pre-arrival upgrades a year, daily breakfast for two, early check-in and late check-out where available, and Leaders Club points on paid stays (enrollment required).
So with that relationship in mind, a points transfer partnership was a logical next step.
What is Leading Hotels of the World?
If you are not familiar with Leading Hotels of the World, think of it as a marketing group rather than a hotel chain. LHW does not run its hotels, it markets a collection of independent luxury properties, more than 400 of them across 80 countries, with a few of them belonging to smaller chains such as Capella and Rocco Forte.
LHW includes some very notable upscale properties such as Passalacqua on Lake Como, the Royal Mansour Marrakech, Le Bristol Paris, The Ritz London, Capella Singapore, and Capella Bangkok, and that is only a small sample of the collection.
Effectively, LHW is the same idea as Small Luxury Hotels of the World, which Hilton Honors partners with, but the LHW collection contains, on average, properties of a more luxurious nature with some genuinely iconic properties included.
The value
Leaders Club award pricing is dynamic, so you’ll need to search live rates by logging into your account and running through the booking process to see what your chosen properties will cost, but we already have a good sense of what a Leaders Club point is worth.
Thanks to the fact that Citi has had a partnership with LHW since 2023, we know each Leaders Club point is worth approximately eight cents toward the cost of a stay. That number will vary slightly from property to property, but it’s a good estimate of how much value you should be able to get out of each LHW point.
Interestingly, Amex points transfer across to LHW at a ratio of 1,000:250 and that’s a better rate than we’ve been getting from Citi ThankYou points, where even the Strata Cards only get a conversion ratio of 1,000:200. That’s a little unexpected.
Given that we value Membership Rewards points at 1.5 cents each, this enhanced partnership between Amex and LHW means that we can exchange 1.5 cents of Amex points for 2 cents of LHW points, and that’s a very nice deal to have as an option.
There are, however, some caveats to all of this.
Firstly, that eight cents per point value is calculated based on what you will be charged if booking through the LHW portal, so on any given date you might be able to find the same room cheaper elsewhere (OTAs, directly with the hotels, etc…).
Secondly, booking through Leaders Club means giving up the perks you would get booking these same hotels through a program like Virtuoso and Amex FHR (think resort credits, upgrades, and breakfast), so while a points redemption may save you some cash, that saving may come at the cost of a few rather expensive benefits (have you seen the cost of breakfast at some of these properties?!)
Finally, it would be remiss of us not to point out that these can be supremely expensive properties that we’re dealing with, so even though you’re getting two cents per point in value, an award booking can still cost you a very large number of Membership Rewards points.
Bottom line
Amex Membership Rewards has added Leading Hotels of the World’s Leaders Club as its 20th travel transfer partner, at a 1,000:250 ratio, building on a relationship that started with the Platinum Sterling status benefit in 2025.
Surprisingly (for a hotel transfer partner) the value on offer looks good. With Leaders Club points worth ~8 cents each, Amex card holders can, effectively, get 2 cents/point in value out of their Membership Rewards balances. That beats our 1.5 cent valuation and that’s not something we’ve ever been able to say with any of Amex’s other hotel transfer partners.
