In my honest opinion, I think Cloud/Aerith, Cloud/Tifa have a lot of similarities with Squall/Rinoa and Squall/Quistis. I am not saying you have to agree with me, but here I have a few points, that you may find interesting. Considering the fact Final Fantasy VII was not intended to be a love story, Final Fantasy VIII was.
They both have a past. But Squall and Quistis go back since they were about 4 years old. Squall says that Quistis was "difficult to deal with." But I don't think Squall and Quistis were friends anymore than Cloud and Tifa. There's even a starry night. The one where Cloud and Tifa make the promise, and at the "secret area" in the Training Center, you see the EXACT same starry night as the one in Nibelheim. And you notice that Tifa and Quistis show affections for Cloud and Squall, but Cloud and Squall show nothing in return. Cloud and Squall make it pretty clear they didn't like Tifa and Quistis in that way.
Squall and Rinoa see shooting stars together, but the "starry night" is a lot darker. It's not like the starry night between Squall and Quistis. I have no idea what the deal is with Squall and Rinoa's promise. They just promise to meet eachother to see shooting stars. That doesn't seem like the sweet child-innocence promise between Cloud and Tifa.
Cloud meets Aerith on the streets of sector eight, and Squall meets Rinoa at the SeeD party. Cloud re-meets Aerith at her Church in sector five, and Squall re-meets Rinoa at the base of the Forest Owls in Timber. Cloud agrees to be Aerith's bodyguard, and Squall agrees to help Rinoa with the Forest Owls. Aerith is able to change Cloud right away, but it took forever for Rinoa to change Squall. But Squall to me, seems like the same. But when Rinoa is in the coma, Squall is on his way to Esthar and says "I......sure have changed." Yeah, okay... Anyway, Aerith is killed, and Rinoa becomes comatose. I think there's a bit of a connection about the "promise" from Cloud x Aerith to Squall x Rinoa. But Cloud and Aerith didn't really make a promise. HOWEVER, by going on the date with Aerith, she'll make a quote about meeting the real Cloud. And at the end of the game, Cloud will say that he can meet Aerith in the Promised Land. To me, it seems that whenever Cloud and Aerith wanted to be together, they had to go to the Promised Land. Squall and Rinoa promise to meet somewhere to see shooting stars. I think they made a promise without really knowing it. In the beginning of Final Fantasy VIII, Rinoa is seen in a flower field, appearing to be waiting for a certain someone. As Aerith is seen in a flower field at the ending credits of Advent Children, and Cloud is shown on his motorcycle, as if he was coming to her.