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I know – a mouthful. These are the four things I’ve been trying to cover the last two days:
In this article
Amex Adds Leaders Club as a Hotel Transfer Partner
American Express has added Leaders Club, the loyalty program for The Leading Hotels of the World, as a Membership Rewards transfer partner. This is Amex’s 20th travel transfer partner and only its fourth hotel partner. It’s arguably the best although I often point out how well you can do with Hilton points during transfer bonuses.
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The ratio is 4:1. Every 1,000 Membership Rewards points gets you 250 Leaders Club points. Transfers start at 1,000 points and post in up to 72 hours.
A 4:1 ratio usually means bad news but not here. Citi ThankYou has been an LHW partner since 2023, and Citi transfers at 5:1, so Amex is the better deal.
The math works, for the most part, because Leaders Club points are worth more than you’d think.
Most would peg the value at an average of 8 cents per Leaders Club point toward the cost of a stay, although it does vary dynamically and it could be 7 or 9 cents on any particular stay.
At 4:1, that puts you around 2 cents per Membership Rewards point. That is a strong number for a hotel transfer. Free nights start at about 4,000 Leaders Club points, so around 16,000 Membership Rewards points for the cheapest awards.
The LHW point valuation is based on what LHW would otherwise charge for the room, and LHW rates are not always the cheapest rate available for a given property. Check the cash rate before you transfer, as always.
What makes this interesting is access to more luxury properties with credit card points at a decent rate. Remember that LHW is not a chain. It is a collection of more than 425 independent luxury hotels across more than 80 countries, and many of them cannot be booked efficiently with any other transferable currency. Think properties like Constance Lemuria in the Seychelles or Hotel Amigo in Brussels. Or the Ritz in Paris which I’ve seen on every blog today….
Also worth knowing: Leaders Club points expire after 24 months of account inactivity, though redeeming or earning resets the clock.
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If you have an Amex Platinum, you already have status here. The Platinum Card® from American Express and The Business Platinum Card® from American Express both include complimentary Leaders Club Sterling status, which normally requires $5,000 in qualifying stays per calendar year.
Enrollment is required, and your email address needs to match across both accounts. I covered that benefit when it was added in the Platinum refresh.
I did speculate at the time it was likely preceding a points transfer arrangement later on.
We have updated our transfer partner matrix to include Leaders Club.
Maybe a transfer bonus is in the works…. that would be sweet.
Book Philippine Airlines Flights With Alaska Atmos Points
Philippine Airlines award redemptions are finally live through Alaska’s Atmos Rewards, bookable directly on alaskaair.com.
This one took a while. Alaska announced PAL as a partner back in May 2025 – earn only.
Then in January 2026 Alaska even the earn went away, so this is nice to see.
Pricing follows Alaska’s distance-based chart. Transpacific business class runs 75,000 points one way from Seattle and Honolulu, and 85,000 one way from Los Angeles and New York. Economy on Seattle to Manila has been showing at 37,500. Availability looks great right now, with reports of up to six seats on some dates.
The 85,000 from JFK is the one to hunt for if you are on the East Coast. Nonstop inventory to Manila is rare, so good luck!
For context, before today there was no clean fixed-rate path from the US to Manila on a published partner chart. You were connecting through Tokyo, Seoul, Hong Kong, or Singapore on someone else’s metal, or paying cash. Alaska has built its program around non-alliance partners like Singapore Airlines, Korean Air, Starlux, and Condor, and PAL fits that pattern. Against Asia Miles, which has devalued in 2023, 2025, and again in May 2026, 75,000 to 85,000 for transpacific business is very reasonable and I believe it’s now the cheapest way to book PAL on points.
The product itself is fine, not aspirational – but this is more about the route. The A350-900 business class is solid and PAL has taken delivery of A350-1000s with a newer cabin, so check when booking.
Two practical notes. There is a display bug where business class bookings show as Coach A after ticketing. A is business, and you can confirm it by logging into your booking on the Philippine Airlines site, where you will also be able to select business class seats. And PAL is expected to join oneworld, at which point AAdvantage members get access to the same award space. If you see a date that works for you, book it. Worst case is you lose your partner award booking fee.
The 10% Transfer Bonus to Cathay Pacific Comes With Some Catches
We sent this out through our transfer bonus alerts yesterday and I posted in the Facebook group – but I wasn’t excited enough for a standalone post.
While Cathay is running a 10% bonus on conversions into Asia Miles for US and Canadian members, running July 27 through August 28, 2026, it is not a typical issuer-run bonus, and the fine print matters more than usual.
Eligible bank programs: American Express Membership Rewards, Bilt Rewards, Brex Rewards, Capital One miles, Citi ThankYou Points, and Wells Fargo Rewards.
Eligible hotel programs: Accor Live Limitless, Best Western Rewards, Hilton Honors, IHG One Rewards, Shangri-La, World of Hyatt, Anantara Vacation Club, Brilliant by Langham, and Dorsett. Marriott Bonvoy did not make the list.
Now the catches.
You have to register first. The promotion is run by Cathay, not by the card issuer, so it will not appear anywhere in your issuer’s transfer pages. Register on Cathay’s promotion page with your membership number, name, and email before you transfer. Transfers made before you register do not count.
It is capped at 10,000 bonus miles. That cap applies across all partners combined. So the bonus stops mattering after roughly 100,000 miles transferred. That’s a SMALL cap!
Bonus miles are expected to post by late September. Right, so you won’t even see the measly 10% at the time you transfer.
Amex devalued Asia Miles: Remember that Membership Rewards dropped to a 5:4 ratio to Asia Miles on March 1, 2026. That means 1,000 Amex points gets you 800 Asia Miles. A 10% bonus on top brings you to 880, which is still well short of 1:1. Bilt, Capital One, and Citi all still transfer at 1:1, so if you are transferring, use one of those. (Or Rove, but that won’t get the 10% bonus).
Don’t convert hotel points. That’s almost never a reasonable value.
And Asia Miles keeps devaluing. The program took award chart increases in 2023, 2025, and again in May 2026. Fuel surcharges came down slightly in July but are still roughly double where they were a couple of years ago.
My take is blunt as you’d expect – not worth it. A 10% bonus is not a reason to move points into Asia Miles speculatively. Good if you were going to anyway….
Delta and Starbucks Adjust Earn Rates
The Delta and Starbucks partnership is changing again on August 5, 2026, and it is the third structure since launch.
What is changing. Linked SkyMiles and Starbucks Rewards members will earn a flat 1 mile per $1 spent at Starbucks. That excludes tax, gratuity, gift cards, and alcohol. Earning is now tied to the purchase itself rather than to reloading a Starbucks card. Delta confirmed that reloading your balance on or after August 5 earns nothing beyond the spend.
What it replaces. Since June 2024, earning has been reload-based and tiered. A $25 to $49.99 reload earned 25 miles. A $50 to $74.99 reload earned 75. A $100 reload earned 200, which worked out to 2 miles per dollar.
So this is simpler and worse if you were reloading in large chunks. If you were buying a $7 coffee and never hitting the $25 floor, you were earning zero before and you earn 7 now. Anyone who was doing the $100 reload tier loses half.
The real change is the new flight requirement. To earn at all, you now need to be flight active, meaning you have taken a qualifying Delta-marketed flight in the past 12 months with your SkyMiles number attached. Award tickets count as long as the flight number starts with DL. If you linked your accounts before August 5 and have not flown recently, you get a grace period through October 5, 2026. If you link on or after August 5, you get 12 months before the requirement kicks in.
I personally think that stinks.
Thoughts?
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