How many pick their travel locations this way?

I am signed up with most airlines that I've flown domestic and abroad and they always send me the sales to my email for free

That's exactly how I decided on 2 of my 3 trips this year. And, honestly, the reason I was able to take three trips this year.

I had a premium (paid) subscription to Scott's Cheap Flights and scored a r/t to Dublin for $485 and a r/t to Iceland for $229. I've since dropped the paid subscription but kept the free version and am now using a paid subscription to Thrifty Traveler which is national but based here in Minnesota and has that local focus you mention. I think my sister's favorite part of our Iceland trip is still the spontaneity of how it all happened and that it was cheaper than Nashville or Florida. Enjoy the excitement of finding the fare that is too good to pass up!

We just call it parachuting in to an inexpensive airport in Europe then fine tuning where we go after that or perhaps near the city where we’ve found a too good to pass up fare.

That’s how we ended up in Vienna and Budapest a few years ago instead of Germany. And we also flew into Düsseldorf one year and then hopped on a train to Paris. In both cases the airfares were around $500 per person from the west coast in the summer and the usual big airports (Paris, London, Frankfurt, etc) flights were between $1000-$1500 per person.

Boy, Mona, see I never would have known that there was a train from Dusseldorf to Paris. How much was the train?

There really isn't a train from Duesseldorf airport, but a 30 minute connecting train to Cologne Hbf. You can get a direct Thalys train to Paris from there. 35 EUR for a nonrefundable ticket bought well in advance, 63 EUR for a ticket that can be changed with a 15 EUR fee before departure, plus the price difference in the ticket. Walk up price is 122 EUR. 3 hour and 21 minute ride Cologne to Paris Nord.

I have yet to plan this way, BUT - big but coming - it's how I see my travels beyond 2020. I've seen so many glorious places around the world. I want to keep traveling, but I may want to start considering how to do it more cheaply. ;-)

(Having said that, I'm already looking at a RS tour for maybe 2021...knocks wood that I'm still here. But if they keep offering discounts for previous tours, I can score that!)

We bought the inexpensive advanced fare ticket and used the time in Köln to run over to a restaurant on the square to drink a Kölsch. When we did it we had a longer than 30 minute layover and on the reverse trip we didn’t need to change trains. Both routes went through Brussels. This routing was about 5 years ago.

Count me in -- since we're retired our most pressing engagements are doctor appointments, so if there's an amazingly cheap airfare I jump on it.

I always say one should never go to a place just because it's cheap, but that money is a great tie-breaker.

So, a cheap fare to a place that doesn't interest me won't work for me. But if I'm undecided, and I see that it's much cheaper to go to one place than another, I pick the cheaper one.

As for trains, you can find a way to connect any two train stations on the European continent, but some of the routes are more convoluted than others. To find routes for almost all of Europe, use the Bahn (German Rail) website http://reiseauskunft.bahn.de/bin/query.exe/en, following Rick's tutorial: http://www.ricksteves.com/travel-tips/transportation/trains/online-schedules. It's always worth looking to see how easy or hard a particular route will be, since it's frequently not obvious. For instance, if they've built a high speed train, a long route can be much faster than expected, and if they haven't, a short route can be much slower.

How many others pick their travel destinations this way?

Not me. Just looking for the low-ball price to get somewhere, anywhere? No thank you.

Life is short. I'm not going to be able to take 1000 trips before I shuffle off this mortal coil. So when I travel, it's going to be to someplace I choose, not just some random place that's cheap to get to.

To me, the cost (in money) of a flight is a secondary concern. A greater concern is the time and "opportunity cost" of going somewhere that's just a random dart-throw determined by some low cost airline's computer. I really don't care if they have a $2 flight to Orlando, I'm not going to spend a week of my life there. I'd rather take that time and spend real money to fly to someplace I actually want to go. Now, if a less expensive flight can get me close to where I want to go, that's fine.

I like saving money as much as anyone, but there are places I wouldn't go (and flights I wouldn't take) if the flight was free (or even if you paid me to sit on the plane to get there).

But if it works for others, hey, good for you. There's no shame in getting a good price. Just don't blinded by price alone to the exclusion of all else.

I have figured out how to get enough miles through credit card promotions to fly to Europe for almost free each of the last five years. I usually need to buy a cheap ticket on from Amsterdam, Paris, Madrid, etc. to my final destination - which could be any number of places in Europe (or outside of Europe I guess, haven't been going elsewhere for a while).

So...no, cheap airfare sales haven't had much impact on my travel plans for a while.

I think it makes sense to do that at times, particularly because you're not in a large, competitive flight market. Plus, if you have a list of places you're interested in, it's not unreasonable to select from that list the one/s that is/are relatively less expensive to get to at a particular time. At another time, another place on your list may be less expensive to get to. When the flight is a substantial cost driver of your trip, it does make sense to try to minimize that variable. Besides, a fare filter of sorts may encourage you to pick a place you may not have previously considered - there's nothing wrong with that.

Many people on the coasts who are blessed with choices and good fares (and airline points) sometimes take for granted that other folks have different constraints on their travels. I always try to minimize the flight cost and other transport costs no matter what, because I'd rather use more resources directly on the ground.

@Laura B isn't that the truth about the doctor appts? And we have lots of time for reading...labels on prescriptions!
This method of picking travel locations appeals to frugal me but not to my "You get what you pay for-put me in the Hilton-I don't fly coach across oceans or continents" spouse.

Up to now I have not used this sort of option. It is an option I have not precluded in trip planning.

If the fare were dirt cheap enough, ie less than $1, 000 r/t, and depending on the destination non-stop from SFO or OAK, I would do it. The destination would have to be Oslo, Amsterdam, Copenhagen, Helsinki, Vienna, Budapest, Paris, Munich, Frankfurt, London, Warsaw. No problem tailoring the trip once the destination is decided.

To clarify, my bargain flights over several years have been (~$500 r/t, including luggage) to Paris in September, to Germany in March, and to Italy in April-May -- usually bought for the end of the particular sale period. All of them places I would go again in a heartbeat, and all places with excellent train and plane connections to other locations.

I've not been able to use Scott's Cheap flights yet, however, I have friends who have traveled the world taking advantage of the flights they have found through him. Some places they had plans to visit anyway and other places they would not have dreamed of going but took advantage of great ticket prices and are very glad they did. They are both retired and very flexible as to where and when they travel. It has worked out great for them.

Last four trips to Europe have all been based on airfare - Frankfurt (Mosel/Rhine,Franconia), Milan (Lakes with a bit of Piemonte and Ticino thrown in), Rome (Rome), Basel (Alsace, Black Forest). At this time we are aiming for a flight to Munich or Vienna for next September, so I doubt we'll obtain cheap flights for those destinations. If they are way above what I want to pay, the cheaper option again. I don't have a bucket list and don't mind returning to some of the places I've visited before.

Basing the vast majority of my trips on what's affordable to get to is the very reason I'm able to travel. We don't have the luxury of just deciding we want to go somewhere, cost the damned. This is why I still haven't been to Sweden or Norway and we have spent significant time in Basel, Swizterland but not seen the rest of the country (we stay with friends in Basel).

If we were rich, I'm sure I wouldn't plan my travel this way, but since I'm not, this is simply how we do it. I'd rather take 3 trips to places chosen partially for cost than 1 trip to the "dream" location.

I tend to have several ideas for travel working at any given time. I often jump on a good deal that fits one of my ideas. My last four trips and next one are solo trips, so it has been pretty easy to adjust my schedule and plans to take advantage of good deals on flights. I think my most expensive round trip in those five trips was $560 and at least one was under $500. That's the nice thing about living close to the DC airports.

If I lived in Anchorage, where flights can be both long and expensive as well as include multiple connections, I could see flight deals being a really big part of choosing my vacation destinations.

I don't because my mileage and elite status is with Delta but if you don't fly often, why not? I do follow the Delta forum on Flyertalk because if there is a huge fare sale, someone will post it.

Absolutely! I’m open to traveling just about anywhere, so if I find a great deal I’ll make it work. My best deal was with Aer Lingus about 15 years ago when we lived in San Diego. I signed up with them and was notified of a “Buy one get one” sale out of LAX. Round trip for 2 people for $500. We jumped on that one, and added flights to London for $24 RT. We flew into Dublin (direct), transferred to a flight to London, spent 4 days in London, flew London to Shannon, spent 9 days driving around, then flew out of Dublin (direct).