Why are airline seats so small?

It's not your imagination: Airline seats are more cramped than ever. Is there anything you can do about it?

Pamela Vetter deals with small airline seats like a lot of passengers: she pretends they don't exist.

"I have a fully charged phone, and I just watch a movie," says Vetter, the vice president of a networking organization in Los Angeles. "I immerse myself in it to distract me from the small seats."

But lately, it's been getting harder to make believe small…