MON., OCT. 9. 2017 - DALLAS/FT WORTH, TX (DFW) TO NEW YORK, NY (JFK) -  We were up early this morning and getting prepared for our 10:20 a.m. departure, non-stop flight on American Airlines which arrived at 2:52 pm at JFK airport.  Everything seemed to be normal for us until Sylvia's luggage came down the luggage belt completely shredded open with clothes falling out of it.  The suitcases we had chosen for this trip were rolling duffel bags that we had purchased and used on our 2011 cruise to the Galapagos Islands. They seemed to be the obvious choice for this trip, meeting all the measurement restrictions.  It seemed from initial investigation that Jim's bag was still intact. Once our things were all loaded on a cart we proceeded to the American Airlines luggage help office for assistance.  There, Sylvia was given a very large suitcase ("it's all they had") and we departed and continued on to the hotel shuttle pickup area. Realizing that we could not use the suitcase given to us by American Airlines but would need to purchase a smaller suitcase for the trip,  we made inquiries of the hotel staff about possible stores in the area.  Our hotel was located near the JFK airport in the older, "blue-collar" town of Ozone Park, NY.  It's an older town that appears to be home to many generations of Italian families.  (Looking down the residential streets from the main thoroughfare, more than one street looked like the typical ones shown on the opening credits of the 1970's television hit show 'All In the Family').  Once we were unloaded into our room we set out walking to a recommended store where we could purchase a suitcase.  The walk was 2 - 2.5 miles, each way and we did find a rolling duffel case that we purchased.  Then walked back to the hotel, in the dark, stopping off at a neighborhood pizza place where we each had a large slice of pizza for dinner.  Once back in our room we compared the newly purchased bag with the ones we had brought from TX.  It was almost twice the size of one of them.  Soon we realized that we must return the new bag and get something smaller.  I guess the best part of this situation was that our flight on Tue. didn't depart until late afternoon so there was still time to shop