Times and dates are key deciding factors when it comes to booking a trip. It's vital we're clear and easy to understand for our travellers.
Time
When writing times in longer-form copy, use the 12-hour clock and relevant abbreviation.
- 10am
- 5.30pm
When writing times in smaller spaces, you can use the 24-hour clock.
- 23.44
Midnight is the first minute of the day, not the last.
- 00.00 for midnight
- 12pm for midday
Always be explicitly clear if you have screen space.
- Book by 11.59pm on Sunday 5 June 2023
If announcing a date or time range in the same month or morning/afternoon, we don’t need to repeat the metric.
- Between 11 and 13 February
- From 10 to 11.30am
Use a full stop to punctuate time, not a colon, as this is better for screen readers.
- 11.30am
Dates
When writing dates, always use the numeric value with no “st”, “nd” or “th” suffix.
- 11 February
- Travel between 11 and 15 February
Include the day of the week if it’s relevant to the context.
- Monday 11 February
Use years and months, not just months.
- '1 year and 6 months' instead of '18 months'
Write the year in full.
- 2023
Use number for day, first 3 letters for month, and full year in number.
- 12 Jan 2023
Use numerical values when writing dates.
-
12/03/2023
Don't use a comma to separate the year.
- July 4, 1996
Separating dates and times
Use en dashes (–) with spaces either side for:
|
Dates |
Times |
|---|---|
|
From 11 – 13 February |
4.50 – 7am |
Organising by date and time
When describing dates or times, follow these conventions:
|
Date/timeframe |
Description |
Example |
|---|---|---|
|
Today |
If something took place 'today' refer to it in this term |
Added today |
|
Yesterday |
If something took place 'yesterday' refer to it in this term |
Added yesterday |
|
Same week |
If something took place in the same week refer to it by day |
Added Monday, Added Tuesday, Added Wednesday |
|
Week before |
If something took place in the previous week refer to it by the date it happened |
Added 15 April |
|
Same year |
If something took place in the same year refer to it by the date it happened |
Added 1 April |
|
Previous year |
If something took place last year refer to it by the date it happened with the year |
Added 27 Dec 2020 |
If you don’t have enough space to write the day of the week or month out in full, you can go straight to the abbreviation.
- Mon 11 February
- Mon 11 Feb
- Mon 11 to Wed 13 Feb
You can abbreviate day names as Mon, Tue, Wed, Thurs, Fri, Sat and Sun.
March, April, May, June and July are never abbreviated, but the remaining months are when followed by a date (11 Feb), and are correctly abbreviated as: Jan, Feb, Aug, Sept, Oct, Nov and Dec.
Numbers
As with dates, we never use ordinal numbers. Write the word or phrase out in full instead.
|
Before |
After |
|---|---|
|
This is the 1st choice |
This is the first choice |
|
You're booking with a 3rd party |
You're booking with a third party |
In headings and body copy, always write out numbers one to ten. Above that, we normally use numerical.
- Ten
- 11
Write ‘one thousand’ using numerics
- Over 1,000 people
When referring to ‘thousands’ generally, we can use the numerals too.
- Search 1,000s of flights
Write ‘million’ and ‘billion’ when referring to these round numbers specifically or generally.
- You are the millionth traveller
- 1 million travellers have chosen us
- We help millions of travellers every year
- The population of India is in the billions
For any non-round number bigger than 999, use numerics with a comma to split every third digit from the right.
- 1,999
- 199,999
- 1,999,999
For any number bigger than 999, use numerics with a comma to split every third digit from the right.
- 1,000
- 100,000
- 1,000,000
Telephone numbers
Add a plus and international code
- +44 XXXX XXX XXX
The spacing in phone numbers varies in different countries. Always use the recognised format in that country.
Don’t put brackets around area codes.
+(44) XXXX XXX XXX