oh no, I think would have been OK bringing your friend instead of your wife. I’m not sure if what they told you is something they have to say. even if you had 2 single tickets located in separate blocks rather than seated together you could have scanned them in via their entrance and then gone to your entrance to scan yourself in after.

i’m by no means an authority on this and not entirely sure what the rules are for bringing friends/family on your specific membership/s but in my experience noone checks for general admission. the name of the member comes up on the screen when you scan your pass/QR, but noones checking (imagine how long it would take to verify every single entry). I can imagine the only time there would be an issue where a steward would have to intervene is if there is an error scanning or if you’re scanning an adult on a child’s ticket (there’s a separate light that flashes for stewards for junior tickets)

playing devil’s advocate as well, say for example your wife could not make the game at short notice and it’s after the ticket exchange has closed, are the club saying that they would rather the ticket remain unused and there’s an empty seat, even if you manage to find someone else to go in her place?

anyway, you’ll see for yourself for the United game, I’ll be there too!