it may be using Michael as an email address and not a phone address and doesn't know the two are the same
make sure you only have one Michael in your contacts now, and merge them if you have 2.
Yeah there are no other Michaels in my phone book and everything is merged into 1 contact.
Do you have to have a registered phone number? When I create a new message and i seaerch for contacts it has a blue speech bubble next to the contacts that are eligible for iMessage. So what I'm seeing now is that Michaels email has a blue speech bubble but his phone number isnt.
This wouldnt be so frustrating if it was normal behaviour but it isnt since my other contacts dont have this issue :(