Sorry for the long post and self-indulgence but I think it is necessary to make a point.
I'm 34 and I've been fortunate to go to nearly every home game since I was 16 and most away games since I was about 20.
For homes, I started on the PTS with three mates. We became members when PTS was scrapped. Thanks to PTS membership and SOS lobbying, we had enough credits to guarantee us for every game. Then I was offered a season ticket loan, which wasn't worth my while as I'd lose the membership credits. But I persuaded the season ticket owner to transfer the ticket into my name, which used to be allowed.
For aways, we started getting tickets through the pools (remember them?). A couple of my mates sold pools tickets, applied for aways for each game, and normally got a couple.
Through going to the games, we met a guy who knew a bunch of fellas with 19 credits who'd decided to stop going. Me and three friends "took over" their league away credits about 12 years ago and have used them ever since. In the Hodgson era, we could have built up our own credits, but we didn't as we wanted to keep up the tickets that had full credits (we were going to every game after all). We didn't buy extras that we weren't going to use to sell on.
For cup games, I have league cup and euro aways on my old fan card as I'd started building these before I got my season ticket. And I have FA cup aways on my season ticket. I did explain the situation to the club and ask them to transfer my fancard credits to the season ticket but they refused.
So, I've got a season ticket without getting to the top of the waiting list (the club allowed this). I run a season ticket and a fancard (the club seems to support this by refusing a credit transfer). And I get my league aways using someone else's season ticket (I've always been aware that this is not allowed but it happens).
I expect the club would consider me to be someone who has abused and is abusing the system. But in my mind, I'm just someone who has used various available routes to get tickets to the match. I'm not a tout. I'm not a criminal. But it looks like getting to league aways is going to be struggle from now on.
Someone mentioned earlier that most of our away fanbase, particularly the 'youngsters', will be using someone else's season ticket. I would go further and say it probably applies to most people under 40; which is probably over half of the away end. In the long time I’ve been going, except with Hodgson, it has been difficult to build away credits. But I see the same faces at every match, most of them younger than me or not much older. Unless they all built credits in those Hodgson years, I find it hard to believe that many of them have the required credits in their names.
I accept that something needs to be done but strictness on tickets being in the “owner’s” name is going to completely change the makeup of our away end.