yeah, sorry for the bad news, but until you get to gold status, the perks really aren't there, especially on aeroplan. on domestic airlines, i think you get domestic upgrades at silver (no international upgrades), but not AP. as a prestige, you're only able to use eupgrades on M and higher fares, which are usually quite pricey, especially since you said you wanted the cheapest option to fly to HKG.

http://www.aircanada.com/en/aeroplan...des/howto.html

even as an E, i haven't been able to secure an upgrade at all for any of my YYZ to HKG flights, which has been twice a year for the past few years. remember, the upgrades are only if the appropriate seats are available... and from what i've seen, they're always gone from SE or people who purchase the seats. sorry, but my limited experience is that upgrading is not easy on AP