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Citi is currently offering a transfer bonus to anyone converting their ThankYou points into points held with Leaders Club, the rewards program for Leading Hotels of the World and the bonus boosts the Citi transfer ratio to a point where it can now be considered a good, viable option for quite a few people.
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.
Note: That section may look familiar if you’ve read our article on LHW/LC and Amex! 🙂
The transfer bonus
Through 19 September 2026, Citi is offering a 25% bonus on transfers from its ThankYou program to Leading Hotels of the World’s Leaders Club.
Citi Strata cardholders ordinarily transfer ThankYou points to Leaders Club at a ratio of 1,000:200, and with the bonus applied that becomes 1,000:250.
The bonus is being offered by Citi, so you should see it as you set up the transfer and the total (including bonus) will move over to your Leaders Club account.
There’s no cap on how many times you can use the offer, and transfers from Citi to Leaders Club are usually instant.
Points can be combined between Citi cards before you transfer, so if you hold more than one ThankYou-earning card you can consolidate balances first.
Anyone considering a transfer should be aware that Amex Membership Rewards points transfer to Leaders Club at 1,000:250 as standard, so for the duration of this promotion Citi matches the Amex rate. It doesn’t beat it.
Thoughts
We value Citi ThankYou points at 1.5 cents each and each Leaders Club point is worth approximately eight cents toward the cost of a stay, so at a ratio of 1,000:250 we are being given the option to exchange 1.5 cents of Citi points for 2.0 cents of LHW points. That’s a very nice deal to be offered.
The thing to bear in mind is that this bonus only brings Citi level with what Amex offers as standard. If you’re sitting on healthy balances of both currencies then this promotion probably makes no difference to you, because you could get the same rate out of your Membership Rewards points whenever you wanted to (possibly more if Amex decides to launch a bonus promotion).
But if you’re short of Amex points and have quite a few Citi points sitting around, this is a good deal and it’s worth taking a look at what Leaders Club can do for you.
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 (think property 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.
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 ThankYou points.
Bottom line
Citi is currently offering a 25% bonus on transfers from its ThankYou Rewards program to Leaders Club and that brings the Citi transfer ratio in line with what Amex offers as standard.
That is, however, no bad thing as there’s value to be had here, and if you’re sitting on a hill of ThankYou points and are contemplating booking a luxury stay, this transfer bonus may offer you a good chance to score a very nice deal.
