Wait was this 1st class to 1st class? Or 1st class to no class seating?
Sounds like she was being asked to switch from full fare first class to cattle class. The gall of anyone who asked. Maybe if they offered to reimburse her the cost of the ticket she would have accepted - maybe. Would be her choice. And hope they had a lot of cash on hand.
That seems to be the $64,000 question. If I was alone in first and asked to move to a different seat in first, I would do it, as there are no bad seats there.
If however, she was being asked to move from first to coach, how would this even be a question? It would be like me buying a nosebleed seat to a football game and asking someone on the 50 yard-line if they would mind changing seats? Uh, NO.