Messages sending to iPhone as SMS instead of iMessage

I have an iPhone 6 Plus running iOS 8.3 and a MacBook Pro 17" running OS X Yosemite (10.10.2). My wife has an iPhone 6 and a MacBook running an older version of OS X. Occasionally when I try to send her an iMessage using the OS X Messages app, it tries to send the message as SMS instead of iMessage. This usually fails because cell phone service at my rural home is spotty at best. Why, when my Mac and both iPhones have solid wi-fi connections to my AirPort Extreme, would it send messages as SMS?

Hi Ian,
If you are having an issue with sending SMS text messages, I would suggest that you troubleshoot using the steps in this article - 
iOS: Troubleshooting Messages - Apple Support
Thanks for using Apple Support Communities.
Best,
Brett L 

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