Is it dishonest to start a PhD with intent to leave it and transfer to another program? I just finished my master and am about to start a funded PhD in October. Thing is that the reason I am doing this PhD is because I missed the deadlines for the PhDs that I am truly interested in. I was thinking that it would be better to do something academic this year and get paid than to do nothing until the next application cycle.


Is this extremely dishonest to start a PhD without the intention to finish it? Will this put me on some blacklist at that university?
How should I portray my position in my other PhD applications? I was thinking of saying that I was doing a funded student placement program or something?
Is this extremely dishonest to start a phd without the intention to finish it? 


It depends if you talk about your situation with your current advisor. If you clearly stated "I'm more interested in another position, but I couldn't get it, and it's likely I'll try next year", then, no, it's not dishonest. If you said you were interested in doing a full PhD there, while you actually were not, then, yes, it's dishonest. You're taking a funding opportunity for someone who would be interested, and in some cases, for instance when the funding is associated with a project, you will leave your current advisor with a partial funding, that cannot be used to hire a new PhD student. 


  Will this put me on some blacklist at that university? 


Again, it depends how you explained the situation, but I would not hope much for any recommendation letter from your current advisor (which is a shame, because recommendation letters can be very useful later on). 


  How should I portray my position in my other phd applications? I was thinking of saying that I was doing a funded student placement program or something?


As I said here, lying is always a bad idea. Academia is a very small world. If you want to change position, then you have to explain why.