As my username suggest I'm looking to fly back and forth on the cheap, I need to fly back and forth between Hong Kong and New York 8 to 10 times a year for the next few years but only have a budget to spend about 200k-ish HKD on it. Definitely not talking business class there but it doesn't have to be back of the bus either. Would it be best to split this between business and bog standard economy or would it be better to fly premium economy. Both cases I think I'm going to be hoping for upgrades most of the time so hence the question, would there be any chance and would there be a way to improve it? The goal would be to appear somewhat fresh to give presentations. I'd buy Marco Polo green and self importantly wave it around if it'd help at all.

Regrettably increasing the travel budget is not an option; when she realises the loss of income the missus will probably make unhappy noises as is!