Is it dishonest to start a PhD with intent to leave it and transfer to another program?
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.