Airline Qantas has been labelled 'the Spirit of Disappointment' and taken out the number one spot in CHOICE's Shonky Awards because of long customer service phone wait times and its flight credits policies.
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CHOICE also said it performed the worst of all domestic airlines. It said in July it recorded fewer than 50 per cent of flights arriving on time, although that had improved somewhat to just under 70 per cent by September.
Qantas said the data used by CHOICE was "itself a bit shonky".
"We had several months of poor performance earlier in the year, but it's improved significantly since August and we're back to our pre-COVID level of service," Qantas said.
"No one is disputing the fact we had issues earlier this year, and we apologised for that, but it's disappointing that CHOICE failed to acknowledge the impact that COVID and border closures have had on the entire aviation industry."
Airline figures aside, pet owners may have encountered the runner-up Shonky Award; handed to quick-access loan product VetPay.
It was called out for its "astonishing array of fees" and lack of transparency in terms and conditions.
Steggles Chicken Nuggets - which claim to be "boosted with veggies" according to the label - have also made the list as CHOICE ruled the nuggets contained so few vegetables that a child would need to eat the entire 400g pack of nuggets, plus some of a second pack, just to get one serve of veg.
"These nuggets are just another example of a processed food making exaggerated claims and misleading statements to target parents who are just trying to make good choices for their kids," CHOICE editor and parent Pru Engel said.
Floral delivery service Bloomex was also awarded a Shonky for accepting orders they couldn't fufil, and delivering flowers that often weren't up to scratch when they did, CHOICE claimed.
CHOICE conducted a mystery shop, ordering 21 Bloomex bouquets and found eight couldn't be delivered, almost half of the 13 orders were delivered late and eight of the 13 contained flowers that were wilting or decomposing.
Rounding out the top five Shonkys was Zega Digital cookware for not delivering on its promise of hands-off energy efficient cooking.
In a statement responding to the award, Zega said the test CHOICE ran - cooking a coq au vin - was done incorrectly and had it been given the chance to troubleshoot via phone "we would have been able to more easily identify what they were doing wrong in order to ensure a perfect result".
CHOICE CEO Alan Kirkland said he would love to never give out another Shonky Award but unfortunately CHOICE continued to uncover products and services "that need to be called out".
"Whether it's an airline that makes redeeming flight credits a nightmare, a finance product targeting distressed pet owners, cookware that doesn't cook properly, processed food dressing itself up as healthy, or a florist delivering dud bouquets, we'll continue to call out companies that do the wrong thing by Australians," he said.
"2022 has been a difficult year, with Australians living through a pandemic, a slew of natural disasters, and a cost of living crisis. The last thing people need is businesses that add more distress, difficulty and disappointment to their lives - but unfortunately that's exactly what we've seen in this year's Shonky Awards."
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