How To Get the Most out of ISAP

Part One - Logic Overview

Written by Chip Mayer

The new ISAP system is fully iterative. To say that the new system "loops" may suggest that it possible for the SAP process to never end, so lets just say that ISAP is based on an iterative process.

Prior to the start of the ISAP award process, open trip pairings get tallied. These open trips are placed into an open time pool. This pool of open trips is constantly monitored throughout the award process. When a trip is dropped during the ISAP award process it gets added to the open time pool.

The ISAP logic respects the seniority of the bidder. ISAP processing begins with the most senior pilot and progresses in seniority order through the list of ISAP participants. The moment a trip is dropped, it is added to the open time pool. When the open time pool changes, processing begins again at the most senior pilot. As you can deduce, is quite possible for the most junior pilot to drop a trip which then changes everything that has already been awarded to everyone senior. The ISAP award process is can take a long time to finish because of this iterative process.

Lets dig in a little deeper. Suppose there is no open time at the start of the process?!? Imagine that every trip which you bid during ISAP is currently held (in the bidline) of another pilot. Well, for the new ISAP system this is no problem...... under two conditions:

1. the pilot that has the trip you want must be participating in ISAP, and
2. he or she must be trying to drop the trip you want.

Even with no open time at the start of the process, pilots using ISAP can still get results. This is because ISAP can recognize swap chains. The swap chain is a very powerful and important element of the new ISAP logic. At a minimum, a swap chain will involve two people; however, it is possible that every ISAP bidder could be part of the same swap chain. Click here to see a simple example of a swap chain in a new browser window. Considering swap chains, we can establish our first guideline for using ISAP:

• Bid for the trips you want -even if the trips are not open prior to the start of ISAP.

In Part 2 of How to Get the Most out of ISAP we will dive into the bid entry screen to discuss the bid unit and apply what we know about the logic to better understand what results to expect when bidding.