Times, dates and numbers

Find out how we write times, dates and numbers in our product.

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 journey times, use the relevant abbreviation.

  • 2 hr 24 min

 

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