Our booking engine at tickets.railforums.co.uk (powered by TrainSplit) helps support the running of the forum with every ticket purchase! Find out more and ask any questions/give us feedback in this thread!
I'd echo my former colleagues post but sonce neither of us are currently working for LNER (allegedly) neither of us is in a position to confirm either way.
Smartcards are different as some products need to be activated therefore gates (at least Cubic and S&B not sure about VIX) are always on when a Smartcard is presented.