I had a crazy experience recently at Palm Springs. PSP-SFO scheduled dep. time 6:10pm. First it was pushed back to 7:30pm just before I left for the airport. Wasn't surprised given some weather at SFO. I figured I'd have dinner in town. During dinner (around 5:40pm) got text that it was pushed back to 8:18pm (app updated boarding pass too). I was about to get an Uber to the airport around 6:10pm, but I didn't want to sit at that airport for almost two hours, so came up with the great idea of walking to the airport (about 2.5 miles). Got going and was checking app/text constantly. At 6:42pm I got a text saying departure time changed to 8:18pm (so that's no change), but app now said 6:50pm departure. Was trying to figure out what to do in disbelief and my phone rang at 6:43pm. Gate agent called saying boarding closes in 5 minutes, hopefully I am at the airport... I could see the terminal buiIding, I was about 2000ft away on the street - decided to make a run for it. Ran to red lights, "ran" through Precheck, got to the gate at 6:50pm and I saw the GA just closed the door. But she opened it and they let me on. Plane pushed back in another 2 minutes or so.

I still can't believe I made it. I really don't want to blame UA here, because slots come and go, but I thought I had a solid plan. Was constantly checking the app and flightaware (sometimes that shows the change earlier) and could get an Uber at any point to get to the gate in 15-20min. None of the texts mentioned to be around the gate, and the app boarding pass did change the boarding time. Plus the text/app was conflicting on that last notification. Given all of the above, I don't see any alternative to sitting at the gate the whole time for any delay if you 100% want to make it. It's nice that they called though