Citi ThankYou is running a 25 percent transfer bonus to LHW Leaders Club through May 16, 2026. The promotion applies to transfers made during the window from any eligible Citi ThankYou account.

Under the standard rate, ThankYou points move to LHW Leaders Club at 1:1. During this promotion, every 1,000 ThankYou points transferred produces 1,250 Leaders Club points. For someone moving 50,000 points, that is the difference between 50,000 and 62,500 points on arrival, 12,500 points of additional value from the same transfer at no extra cost.

Citi ThankYou does not run transfer bonuses to LHW Leaders Club frequently. Cardholders who have been accumulating a ThankYou balance with a luxury hotel stay in mind should take this window seriously.

What Is LHW Leaders Club?

Leading Hotels of the World is an independent hotel collection founded in 1928. The portfolio spans more than 400 properties across 80 countries. Membership is selective: hotels must pass LHW inspection standards to join, and properties are removed if standards slip. The result is a curated set of independently owned hotels occupying the top tier of the luxury market without the uniformity of a branded chain.

Leaders Club is the loyalty program attached to the collection. Members earn points from stays at member properties and can redeem those points for credits applied toward room charges, dining, spa services, or room upgrades. Unlike Hyatt World of Hyatt or IHG One Rewards, Leaders Club does not publish a fixed award chart. Redemption availability and the number of points required vary by property and date, confirmed at the property level.

The program’s core proposition is access to a loyalty currency for properties that exist entirely outside the major hotel chains. A converted historic estate in Portugal, a remote safari camp in Botswana, a rooftop property in Istanbul, these are the kinds of hotels LHW serves. None of them appear in Marriott Bonvoy, Hilton Honors, or World of Hyatt. If you want a loyalty redemption at a property in the LHW collection, Leaders Club is generally the only path.

The program has real limitations. LHW Leaders Club points are not liquid. You cannot transfer them to airlines, use them across multiple programs, or plan around a published chart. For travelers who prefer the structure and predictability of Hyatt or IHG, Leaders Club requires more research upfront. For travelers willing to do that work to reach properties beyond the chain system, the program occupies a genuine niche.

How the Transfer Works

The transfer is initiated through your Citi ThankYou account at thankyou.com. You will need a linked Leaders Club membership number. Registration for Leaders Club is free at lhw.com if you do not already have an account. Points transfer directly and are typically credited within a few days.

Eligible cards for the transfer include:

Citi Strata Premier, the $95-annual-fee ThankYou card that earns 3x points on dining, groceries, gas, and air travel, plus 10x on hotels booked through Citi Travel. This is the primary card for accumulating a transferable ThankYou balance. Citi does not currently have an online affiliate application open; the card can be applied for directly at citi.com/credit-cards.

Citi Strata Elite, Citi’s premium ThankYou card, which also supports full point transfers to airline and hotel partners. Apply directly at citi.com.

Cardholders who earn ThankYou Cash Rewards through the Citi Double Cash or Citi Custom Cash can convert those earnings to ThankYou points if they have a linked Strata Premier or Strata Elite account. Points pooled this way become eligible for the 1:1.25 transfer rate during the promotion window.

The 25 percent bonus applies to the transfer event, not to ongoing earning. Points accumulated before the promotion window opened are fully eligible. There is no requirement to earn new points before May 16.

When It Makes Sense to Transfer

The case for transferring is strongest when two things are both true: you have a specific LHW property in mind, and you have confirmed that Leaders Club redemptions are available at that property for your dates.

LHW Leaders Club is not well suited to speculative transfers. There is no published chart showing what a night costs before you search. If you move 50,000 ThankYou points to Leaders Club without a confirmed redemption target, you are sitting on a balance in a program with limited flexibility and no easy off-ramp.

Where the program pays off: properties that exist outside every major chain. The luxury hotel market splits roughly into two zones. One zone is served by Marriott Bonvoy, Hilton Honors, World of Hyatt, and IHG One Rewards, programs that cover most premium and luxury hotels globally with reliable redemption math. The other zone is the collection of genuinely independent luxury hotels with no chain affiliation. LHW reaches that second zone with a transferable currency, and very few other programs do.

If you have a stay already planned at an LHW property, this promotion removes friction from funding that redemption. A 25 percent bonus is significant when you are moving a meaningful balance. A cardholder transferring 80,000 ThankYou points receives 100,000 Leaders Club points instead of 80,000, enough to make a material difference at a given property.

One practical check: if a property appears in both a major chain program and the LHW collection (which occasionally happens with dual-affiliated hotels), run the math on both paths before transferring. The bonus rate on a ThankYou transfer may or may not beat a chain redemption depending on the property and category.

The Bottom Line

The Citi ThankYou to LHW Leaders Club transfer bonus expires May 16. The math is straightforward: every 1,000 ThankYou points transferred produces 1,250 Leaders Club points during the promotion, versus 1,000 at the standard rate.

Transfer before May 16 if you have a specific LHW stay planned and need to fund a Leaders Club balance. If you do not have a concrete redemption target, there is no reason to rush. Points transferred into niche programs without a clear use tend to sit idle.

Before committing to a transfer, check lhw.com for properties and confirm Leaders Club redemption availability with the hotel for your dates. The 25 percent bonus is real and meaningful, but the program’s value depends entirely on having somewhere specific to use the points.

Citi Strata Premier cardholders who have been building a ThankYou balance on the 3x dining and grocery categories now have a strong candidate for where to deploy it: fund a Leaders Club account at 25 percent above normal and put the bonus points toward a property that sits outside the chain system.