True, Mrs BB has RA and can be in severe pain some days which is why we always book first class seats, she picked up our grand daughter up at Paddington last Thursday and went 800 there and back, a almost nine hour total journey (with just less than an hour between trains) she said the seats in the train were fine, so maybe the first seats in the 800 First have changed?
Or your friend is substantially less “bulky” than we are……that makes a difference to cushion comfort